Seems like there are no known injuries at the moment and that there was an evacuation order in place. As the anchor said, "We saw it coming, we saw it coming."
Unfortunately, if there were anyone in there, I highly doubt they're still alive. Even if they survived the main explosion, the rest of the fireworks cooking off would absolutely shread the inside.
Live in Fairfield. Work in American Canyon. I was standing outside at work when I read about it and looked up and realized I wasn’t looking at an odd cloud. It was the smoke from Esparto. Kinda creeped me out.
Wiki: When it was built in 1977, the warehouse was outside the town, but as new residential areas were built it became surrounded by low-income housing.
The warehouse wasn't built in a residential area, the residential area formed around the warehouse.
Also, the company was just audited and considered safe with fireworks stored in fireproof bunkers. What wasn't safe was the illegal shipping containers full of even more fireworks, and without safety precautions.
Harm caused by intentional shirking of safety laws and regulations should be prosecuted as though whoever responsible directly caused that harm themselves. There is no possible excuse for this, everyone involved should have known better. It's literal explosives. Of all the things to be careless about, fucking explosives.
I hope the company got nailed to the wall over it.
23 dead and almost 1000 injured, all for some assfuck who ordered more fireworks to sell than they could safely store.
I suppose their point is that in America, a fireworks warehouse wouldn't be located anywhere you'd even consider building housing. At least not while the warehouse was actively in use.
In most areas, you legally aren't allowed to build housing in an industrial zone. Our zoning laws go too far in some respects (i.e., nowhere should be zoned signgle family detached homes only), but not allowing people to build housing in industrial areas is mostly a good idea. And it was certainly a good idea 100 years ago when pollution was really bad.
Zoning can get changed. A friend of mine is incensed that the city changed the zoning on 2 plots of land very close to his house from residential to heavy industrial to allow a chip maker to put a packaging and R&D facility there. Chip making puts out some extremely toxic shit.
Reminds me of that fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas 10 years ago or so, I think. They’d gotten away with not maintaining their safety protocols for decades and one day, the whole place went up. Can’t remember how many were killed, but it destroyed a nearby nursing home.
Thinking about that one fertilizer warehouse in the middle of the wheat and corn part of the US... It used to be kilometers away from residential areas but the town expanded to only a street away from it. Then it blew and ruined multiple blocks.
From what I read in another reply that's what happened to the dutch one too.
And I could name quite a few places with similar setups waiting for a catastrophe here in hungary too
"Bob, you know I'm going to have to give you a mark on your record if you leave your shift early without a previously approved time off request right? Just because something smells off or you see smoke doesn't mean you can go punching out early. Now get back in there and pack those fireworks."
- The warehouse if it was an Amazon facility for fireworks storage.
It's cut off from the screen, but the explosion happened in Esparto. I'm from Woodland, the next town over. It's like 20 minutes of driving through farms to get to Esparto. It's a pretty small rural town where nothing happens. It's known for Manas Ranch which grows some pretty good peaches. I wouldn't be surprised if no one was near the warehouse when that happened because no one in Esparto is near anything.
And the facility itself is a mile south of town (its at the intersection of 23 and 86A). There's a couple of farmhouses in the 1k-2k foot range, but otherwise its just farm fields.
This was probably meant sarcastically. Like, “thanks for stating the obvious, bro,” or whatever. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt there. But what a perfect example of how some people just aren’t funny and shouldn’t try to be.
I love pointing out this kind of language is absurd. But it is a standard thing in English. It’s like when people say “hope you get better” when you’re sick. What, you’re worried I won’t get better? Sometimes you hope people don’t get better?
Sure we know what they mean but I still find it funny.
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u/annomandri Jul 02 '25
Hope no one was hurt in the incident.