San Ramon Man Charged In Deadly Explosion

A San Ramon man is among five people charged with murder in the Esparto fireworks warehouse explosion that killed seven workers last July. (apnews.com) Prosecutors say Kenneth Kin Chee, 48, owner of Devastating Pyrotechnics, was arrested in Florida near Walt Disney World after a Yolo County grand jury indictment was filed on April 3 and announced on April 10. He is one of eight defendants facing 30 charges in the case. (patch.com, abc7news.com) The indictment names five men on seven murder counts tied to the deaths of seven victims in the July 1, 2025 blast: Chee, Gary Y. Chan Jr., Jack Y. Lee, Douglas Michael Tollefsen and Samuel Elmo Machado. Court records show the charges were filed in Yolo County Superior Court under case CR2026-1424. (htv-prod-media.s3.amazonaws.com) Investigators say the warehouse near Esparto was operating as an illegal fireworks site, and prosecutors allege more than 1 million pounds of explosives were stored there when it exploded. The blast killed seven people, injured two others and sparked the 78-acre Oakdale Fire. (abc7news.com, cbsnews.com) The case now reaches beyond the explosion itself. Prosecutors say Samuel Machado, then a Yolo County sheriff’s lieutenant and the owner of the Esparto property, used his position to help the operation avoid scrutiny as it expanded from 13 storage containers in 2015 to 50 containers in 2025. (abc7news.com) At a court hearing on April 16, prosecutors said Machado had explosives delivered to his front door, warned operators when inspections were coming and made false statements to agencies and county staff. Machado pleaded not guilty, and a judge denied his request for bail. (capradio.org) The criminal case landed after months of parallel findings from fire and workplace investigators. Cal Fire said on February 2 that its report had uncovered evidence of alleged illegal activity, and California’s workplace safety agency had already fined Devastating Pyrotechnics $221,000 in December 2025 for 15 violations. (cbsnews.com) A separate Yolo County civil grand jury report released on March 26 said county officials, sheriff’s staff and fire agencies had multiple chances to intervene before the blast but did not act. The report’s title was blunt: “Officials Knew, None Acted.” (kron4.com, capradio.org) The seven victims were later identified by Yolo County authorities, and the coroner said all died immediately from multiple blast and thermal injuries. Four of the seven were from the Bay Area. (capradio.org, abc10.com, ktvu.com) More arraignments and bail hearings are still ahead in Yolo County, where families of the dead have begun confronting the defendants in court. Nearly 10 months after the explosion, the criminal case is shifting the focus from how the warehouse blew up to who prosecutors say kept it running. (capradio.org, abc10.com)