San Ramon Man Charged In Fatal Explosion

A San Ramon man was arrested at Walt Disney World and charged with seven murders in the fireworks warehouse explosion that killed seven workers in Esparto. (patch.com) Yolo County prosecutors said Kenneth Kin Chee, 48, was among eight people indicted after a grand jury investigation into the July 1, 2025 blast in rural Yolo County. Authorities said the explosion also injured two people and ignited a 78-acre fire. (abc10.com) Chee was arrested in Bay Lake, Florida, near Disney World, according to jail records cited by local outlets, and Patch reported he was being held in Florida without bail after a first court appearance there. Prosecutors say he owned Devastating Pyrotechnics, one of the companies tied to the site. (abc10.com) (patch.com) The criminal case goes beyond one explosion. Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig said five of the eight defendants were charged with second-degree murder, and prosecutors described the property as the center of a long-running illegal explosives operation. (abc10.com) According to the indictment described by prosecutors, more than 11 million pounds of fireworks or related materials were imported through the operation, and at least 1 million pounds were stored at the Esparto property when it exploded. Prosecutors said the site had grown from 13 storage containers in 2015 to 50 in 2025. (abc10.com) (patch.com) One defendant, Samuel Machado, was a Yolo County sheriff’s lieutenant at the time of the blast, and prosecutors allege he used that role to help shield the operation from scrutiny. ABC10 reported Machado faces 26 charges, including murder, child endangerment, animal cruelty, weapons violations and tax fraud. (patch.com) (abc10.com) The explosion upended Esparto months before these arrests. Yolo County’s Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency on July 8, 2025, saying the blast destroyed property and infrastructure and left seven people dead. (yolocounty.gov) Investigators and regulators were already treating the blast as a wider failure of oversight. A state task force issued 37 recommendations in March 2026, including changes to fireworks licensing rules after officials said state standards allowed Chee to obtain a license even though he had been denied a federal license because of a gun-related felony conviction. (cbsnews.com) The seven men killed in the explosion died immediately from multiple blast and thermal injuries, according to the Yolo County coroner’s findings released in August 2025. The criminal case is now moving from investigation to arraignments and extradition fights, with prosecutors saying more charges are still possible. (cbsnews.com) (kcra.com)