(Los Angeles) Seven people are still missing on Wednesday in California on Wednesday, the day after the explosion of a fireworks warehouse, which made two injured and launched a fire in a rural region, according to the authorities.
The explosion took place on Tuesday evening, after a fire broke out in this warehouse located in Esparto, in the north of the state, a few days before the traditional fireworks organized everywhere across the United States on Friday, July 4, for the national holiday.
In California, “seven people are still missing,” said Calfire, the state firefighters agency, in a statement on Wednesday.
“First aid and investigators work tirelessly with the site owner to determine where these people are. »»
This type of incident is very rare, as installations of this type are required to respect not only the strict requirements of California in terms of pyrotechnics, but also the federal requirements for storage of explosives.
Calfire, in a press release
The two wounded found are now out of danger, according to the authorities.
But the firefighters have not been able to access the warehouse, because of the remains of fireworks that are on the spot and risk exploding.
“The current situation is very complex and risky,” said Curtis Lawrence, the chief of the Esparto firefighters, during a press conference.
The place is “a large scope of debris” with “large bursts of bursts dispersed over a large area”, which justifies the maintenance of a “large security perimeter” around the area, while the fire calms down, he explained.
This has caused the anger of some relatives of the missing.
A woman interrupted the press conference explaining that her boyfriend and two brothers-in-law was among the missing. She complained of having no information.
She reproached the firefighters for not “focusing on the people who are stuck in the warehouse, perhaps dead”.
“People may have lost their lives because you don’t do your job properly,” she said.
Because of the explosion, several surrounding cities have announced that they should cancel their fireworks scheduled for Friday.
