Fireworks explosion rattled Esparto. Days later, residents are still reeling
Not everyone in Esparto registered the number of explosions that rattled their community, but locals felt every one.
Otherwise, the city had mostly resumed its small-town calm headed into the Fourth of July weekend.
Birds chirped and traffic appeared normal — apart from the bustle at the local fire department in the center of town — as responders continued to manage the remains of the fireworks facility that exploded barely a mile away, just a few days before.
“No one understands unless you were here,” said Toni Mendieta, library branch supervisor.
The fire and series of blasts physically shook parts of the Yolo County outpost, population 3,500, rattling businesses and homes, and shooting bursts of air through town and inside buildings.
Authorities have said that seven people remain unaccounted for at the site of the explosions, where there are more questions than answers as to what triggered the fire and blasts that followed.
But for many, in the moment before it happened, it only seemed like the power had gone out.
Inside of Esparto Regional Library, more than a mile away, confusion at the sudden power outage was outdone by the thunderous sounds.
“It was so fast,” Mendieta said.
“I thought a big giant came — obviously it’s not a giant, but my reader-mind goes, and it’s as if somebody grabbed us from the top of the library,” she said. “The impact was so intense and the air, there was a weird gust of air in the library.
“It felt end-of-worldly, because it was unfamiliar.”
The lights stayed out. A light fixture and some sprinkler caps shook loose. Families with kids were at the park outside.
Panic followed.
Outside they saw a plume of smoke, not unlike a mushroom cloud, towering in the sky.
“It was, like, are we safe here?” said Jessie Berlanga, library assistant. “Are we safe in the parking lot? One of the families just got in their car.”
The smoke rose over otherwise idyllic settings: kids practicing at a baseball field, an empty playground, the local high school during summer break, all as the sound of fireworks began popping in the distance.
“We’re all feeling it, we’re all confused, we’re all emotional about it,” Mendieta said of the town’s response. “And we’re aware of each other’s existence. ... Everyone knows they’re not alone.”
Diana Lopez, the Yolo County librarian, was in her office in Woodland — more than 10 miles away — and still felt the blast.
“Even out that way, it sounded like a car had crashed into our building,” Lopez said.
She worked from the Esparto branch Thursday in a community room prepped for community members and families who may have needed assistance related to the explosions, which prompted a perimeter and evacuation orders that displaced some.
“Initially people thought it was a plane crash or something like that,” Lopez said. “Most of us didn’t know there was a fireworks facility so close by.”
Some residents had posted on Facebook about their pets that ran away and hadn’t returned home since the blast. Others haven’t had their power restored.
Jairo Frausto and Adan Prado, both 14, had similar experiences in different parts of town.
Frausto was at home preparing for soccer practice when the power cut out. Prado was at home in his living room.
Then came the boom.
“It felt like an earthquake,” Frausto said.
“I don’t even know how to explain it,” Prado added.
Both had seen the property housing the fireworks facility but didn’t know what it was.
On the way to Frausto’s practice in Woodland, he saw the plume rising from that location.
Jacob Hogge, 26, lives in Woodland but was near Esparto when the facility exploded. His mother, Lynda, used to live in town and knew that fireworks had been stored there.
They were both outside of Dollar General on Highway 16, the edge of the perimeter authorities established, two days after the blast. To one side of them was the road to the facility, to the other an empty field. Not far past the field lies the heart of town.
Had the facility been any closer to the city, they wondered, what might have happened?
“It’s bad what happened,” Lynda said. “But it had the potential to be so much worse.”
This story was originally published July 4, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
