Explosion at a California fireworks warehouse sets off fires and forces evacuations
People were urged to avoid the area of Esparto and Madison for several days following the Tuesday night explosion, which set off multiple fireworks and caused a large fire that led to other spot fires and collapsed the building.
'The fire will take time to cool, and once it does, explosive experts must safely enter the site to assess and secure the area,' the Yolo County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.
The cause of the explosion was under investigation, the office said.
The fire had reached 78 acres (32 hectares) as of Tuesday night, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
Esparto is in a rural area about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento.
'We do believe this location is owned by an active pyrotechnic license holder,' Deputy State Fire Marshal Kara Garrett told KXTV. She added: 'This type of incident is very rare, as facilities like this are required to not only follow our stringent California pyrotechnic requirements, but also federal explosive storage requirements.'
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The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
The heartbreak of watching a parent fall for fraud: ‘Dad, this is a scam – have you given her money?'
Bomba wasn't the first, but she exploded in our lives like a digital grenade. She's not real, I told my dad – then in his early seventies. I was in Australia at this time, where I've lived for the last 13 years. Physically speaking, he was still in California – but within himself he was adrift in a rapidly sinking lifeboat, floating in a morass of debris primarily of his own doing. But it must be said before I go further: my dad isn't the bad guy in this story. Not this time. At times, he was the bad guy in other people's stories– but that is another story. If she's not real, he countered, then how is it that we've spoken on the phone? That we video-chatted? I'll admit that threw me. In most catfishing stories the catfish goes to great lengths to avoid video chatting. But my dad being the unreliable source he was, I wasn't entirely sure he was being truthful about that detail. It was a heartbreaking thing to have to break down for my dad. My dad – who had once been a handsome, charismatic Lothario with swagger, with game – now had to be told by both of his daughters that this chic Bomba was 100% not real, not into him, not what or who she says she is. He didn't believe us. Bomba had presented herself, via Facebook, as a widow living in Naples, Florida. She and her late husband had been in the gemstone business, and she was a millionaire. A lonely millionaire at that, looking for love and companionship. She's not real, Dad. I begged him to understand. But I've seen her bank statements. Why would she show you her bank statements? Because her money is tied up in Europe, she can't access it, but she wanted me to know she has it. Dad. This is a scam. Have you given her money? Did she ask for money? Dad? DAD? Needless to say, he didn't believe me. The thing about my dad and money is that he had lived a life of great abundance and great scarcity. He'd been born into 1950's Midwestern high-society, the son of a department store titan, and then – as many of his cohort did in the sixties and seventies, he 'dropped out.' He spent most of his twenties and early thirties in the Motown music scene – he was a talented saxophone player – and in that scene he became addicted to heroin and other substances. He was a low to mid-level drug dealer himself and I am pretty sure there are things I still don't know about that time. What I do know – because I lived it – is that, while he was never what you'd call 'straight' – he did straighten out. He began the long process of untangling himself from heroin after I was born, but he'd never kick his dependence on alcohol and weed – and that taste for opioids would come back for its pound of flesh. He aimed higher. He got 'good' jobs. He started businesses. He achieved as an athlete, and was the basketball coach at my high school. For a period of time he, and those around him, flourished. He had money. And then he lost it, along with his second marriage, his house in the California mountains, his fancy RV … and his pride. By the time Bomba appeared, he was still nursing the faint hope that he might – somehow, some way – get it all back again. Even though by this time he'd burnt so many bridges he was practically an island, and was thoroughly physically incapacitated by the severe scoliosis he'd always outrun as a younger, fitter man. For the pain that the gin couldn't help, his doctors prescribed OxyContin. We'll get to that. He never admitted to sending Bomba money, but my gut says he did. I'd hoped maybe that would be the last scam, but then this happened: my dad called one afternoon to tell me that he was going to buy my husband a better boat. How, I asked? Because I've won the lottery, he said. My heart sank. Dad. It's not real. He forwarded me the documents he'd been sent – on Facebook – by some guy, let's call him Bob. 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Daily Mail
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- Daily Mail
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The Guardian
21 hours ago
- The Guardian
Two wounded in Greece after explosion at home of prison guard official
Two people have been wounded in a bomb attack in a suburb of Greece's second city Thessaloniki, damaging a block of flats and six cars. The explosion in the early hours on Saturday morning targeted the home of the president of the Greek association of prison guards in the suburb of Sykies. The guard, identified as Konstantinos Varsamis on the association's website, was unharmed after about 3kg of explosives were placed near the front door of his building, where he lives on the first floor. Two other people suffered minor injuries from shards of glass, police sources told Agence France-Presse. The blast was said to have caused a 'deafening noise' heard over a radius of more than 1km. 'I woke up because of the very loud bang of the explosion,' Tzetno Kelo, who lives in an adjacent building, said. 'Shattered glass from a window fell on my bed and I was covered in blood.' He was treated at a hospital before being discharged. Sofia Hatzigeorgiou, 88, who lives alone, told the Greek media outlet DNews that she had got up and discovered her house had become a 'summer house': a huge hole had opened up in the wall between her mezzanine flat and the building where the bomb had been placed. The windows of neighbouring buildings were also damaged in the blast. Local media reports suggest the bomb was a 'fairly simple device' triggered by a standard detonator. Police told Associated Press reporters that a witness saw a man walking in the street shortly before the explosion and they were focusing their efforts on criminal gangs rather than terror groups. Varsamis has worked for many years at Diavata prison, west of Thessaloniki, known for housing many criminal gang members as well as convicted terrorists. A spokesperson for the Hellenic police force confirmed that its organised crime unit was leading the preliminary investigation into the incident. Firefighters, an ambulance and dozens of police officers, including anti-terrorism specialists, attended the scene. Footage of the incident showed crowds of people standing outside the building in the middle of the night, some in their nightwear and slippers. One woman carefully made her way across shards of glass, carrying a cat. The Thessaloniki MP, Stratos Simopoulos, told DNews he had rushed to the scene of the explosion to support Varsamis, who is a friend of his: 'He has my full support, because a few weeks ago, I too received the same cowardly attack. His was much more violent. 'Public officials, who perform their duty without compromise, may be on the frontlines of the threat from such terrorist and criminal actions. I absolutely believe that they do not flinch,' he said.
