San Ramon Man Charged in Deadly Blast

A San Ramon man was arrested at Walt Disney World and charged with murder in the Esparto fireworks explosion that killed seven people last summer. (patch.com) Yolo County prosecutors said Kenneth Kin Chee, 48, was one of eight people indicted in the case and one of five charged with seven counts of murder, one count for each person killed on July 1, 2025. Authorities said two other people were injured in the blast. (abc7news.com) Chee is identified in court reporting as the owner of Devastating Pyrotechnics, a San Francisco-based fireworks company. An arrest affidavit said he was taken into custody in Florida near Disney World as investigators closed in after months of work across California and other states. (independent.co.uk) The criminal case grew out of an explosion at a warehouse property on County Road 23 near Esparto, a farming community in Yolo County northwest of Sacramento. The blast set off the Oakdale Fire, which burned 78 acres and was fully contained by July 6, 2025. (fire.ca.gov) Federal and state fire investigators treated the scene as a major explosives case within days of the blast. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its National Response Team arrived on July 4, 2025, to assist the California Office of the State Fire Marshal in determining the origin and cause. (atf.gov) By April 10, 2026, Yolo County officials said arrests had been made in California and Florida and that the indictment covered murder, conspiracy and weapons-related counts. CBS Sacramento reported that eight people were arrested, while prosecutors said five of them faced murder charges. (cbsnews.com) The case widened beyond Chee. CapRadio reported that former Yolo County sheriff’s lieutenant Samuel Machado was among those charged with seven counts of murder, and that other defendants included Machado’s wife, Tammy Machado, and people tied to the fireworks business. (capradio.org) At a court hearing on April 16, several defendants entered not guilty pleas, and families of the dead asked a judge to keep key defendants in custody. KTVU reported that Samuel Machado pleaded not guilty and remained held without bail after relatives of the seven men addressed the court. (ktvu.com) Investigators and prosecutors have described the Esparto site as an illegal fireworks operation, not a permitted storage setup. That allegation is central to why the case moved from a fire investigation to homicide charges nearly nine months after the explosion. (nbcbayarea.com) Chee’s case now moves through Yolo County Superior Court alongside the other defendants, as prosecutors argue the deaths were the foreseeable result of storing and handling illegal explosives. The blast that destroyed the Esparto site is now also the basis for one of the largest criminal cases to come out of Yolo County in years. (usatoday.com)