California fireworks facilities have exploded before. Here were some of the worst
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- The Esparto fireworks blast marked California's first since a 1996 explosion in Rialto.
- Incidents in Santa Clarita, San Francisco and Rialto killed workers and leveled buildings.
- Investigations often revealed unsafe storage, illegal operations or human error.
The blasts that wrecked a fireworks facility in Esparto on Tuesday mark the first reported explosion in a fireworks factory or warehouse in California since 1996.
Questions remain about the seven people who are missing and possibly died in the Esparto explosion, and what triggered the blast.
Though almost 30 years have passed since the last such explosion in California, the state is no stranger to fireworks facility disasters. Some killed multiple people. Others damaged dozens of buildings and left city blocks alight.
Here are some of the most notable incidents.
February 1968: United Fireworks, Rialto
In one of California’s earliest recorded fireworks warehouse explosions, a blast at a United Fireworks plant in Rialto killed three workers and injured nine on Feb. 15, 1968.
The San Bernardino County Sun newspaper reported that 35 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
June 1970: Pacific Fireworks, Santa Clarita
At least one person died as an explosion rocked a Pacific Fireworks factory in Santa Clarita on June 24, 1970. The Valley News of Van Nuys reported that burns covered 95% of the victim’s body.
The blast demolished the 50-by-100-foot plant and injured the factory’s owner and an employee, according to archived news reports.
April 1986: Unnamed fireworks operator, San Francisco
A building in San Francisco’s Bayview district sprung off its foundations with a boom on April 4, 1986.
“In addition to other artisan studios and small businesses, the building had housed 14 woodworking shops employing an estimated 27 crafts people,” The Sacramento Bee wrote at the time. “Eight people died. The loss was estimated at more than $10 million.”
Investigators found that an illegal fireworks company masquerading as a computer paper office had used the building to operate secretly. Lawsuits lasted four years and led to 125 plaintiffs eventually earning a shared $9 million under a settlement, according to news reports.
The disaster is possibly the deadliest fireworks incident in California.
July 1987: Trojan and Astro Fireworks, Rialto
A chain of three explosions burst through the Trojan and Astro Fireworks plant on July 27, 1987, setting surrounding buildings ablaze. The San Bernardino County Sun reported witnessing employees escape the warehouse and spill into the streets. The blast ultimately killed one person and injured two.
Two months later, an employee at Celebrity Fireworks Co. would blow up a bunker beneath the company’s plant. It injured two, set three buildings on fire, and leveled more than 300 yards of earth surrounding the bunker. The Associated Press reported that the police ruled the explosion a suicide bombing.
September 1996: Pyro Spectaculars, Inc., Rialto
Rialto’s streak of disasters continued Sept. 6, 1996. An employee at a Pyro Spectaculars, Inc. warehouse tripped and dropped a combustible shell. The shell rolled across the floor of a trailer loaded with explosives, ignited powder on the floor and set off $200,000 worth of fireworks.
The explosion blew a yawning hole into the side of the warehouse before billowing into a mushroom cloud. It killed the employee and raised anger from nearby residents who felt misled about the potential danger when they moved earlier that decade, according to news reports at the time.
“We were lied to,” Ruth Johnston, who lived 50 yards away from the warehouse, told the San Bernardino County Sun soon after the explosion. “We were told … that this was just a little storage warehouse. They didn’t tell us what they stored there.”
This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 3:35 PM.
