
Exclusive: Owner of fireworks company linked to deadly explosion was denied federal license
It's not clear why Kenneth Chee, a 48-year-old optometrist, was denied a license by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, nor whether he needed that license to own or act as head of Devastating Pyrotechnics. Two years ago, federal authorities approved a license for another man, Gary Chan Jr. of San Francisco, to operate Devastating Pyrotechnics, documents show.
An attorney representing Chee and his company declined to comment, and ATF officials, who are investigating Tuesday's explosion at a warehouse on a property in the farm town of Esparto, did not respond to interview requests.
But Chee had apparently rebuilt his life after early trouble. As a young man in 1998, he was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of assault with a firearm and firing a gun from a motor vehicle at a person, according to state records. Chee served his time at the prison now called San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in Marin County. Under ATF regulations, anyone who has been convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison cannot obtain a federal explosives license.
Yet additional records obtained by the Chronicle show Chee — who filed the company's articles of incorporation with the California Secretary of State — obtained approval to operate his fireworks company from California officials. Devastating Pyrotechnics held three licenses from the Office of the State Fire Marshal to import and export materials, sell fireworks and launch public displays, all under Chee's name.
Chee's status is one of many complexities investigators are sorting through in the aftermath of the explosion. The Esparto property, 35 miles northwest of Sacramento, was zoned for agriculture through Yolo County, and KCRA-TV reported it was owned by Sam Machado, a lieutenant with the Yolo County Sheriff's Office.
Meanwhile, the Chronicle viewed maps showing the operations of Devastating Pyrotechnics and another company on the property, Blackstar Fireworks. Devastating Pyrotechnics was permitted to store display-grade fireworks, the type used in municipal shows, in large metal storage containers far away from the building that burst into flames. The company's closest storage magazine was almost 2,000 feet away, or a third of a mile.
On Friday, the burned warehouse continued to smolder as several families of company workers awaited news. Authorities said seven people were missing, and a source familiar with the investigation told the Chronicle that one death had been confirmed. The blast also injured two people, and led to cancellations of at least a dozen July Fourth displays the company had been planning in the region.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the state's Cal Fire agency, Jason Clay, said the facility's owner held valid state and federal licenses for storing explosives. 'Part of our investigation will be to go through and determine the materials that were in there,' he said.
Federal authorities in 2023 approved the license for Gary Chan Jr. to operate Devastating Pyrotechnics. ATF records indicate Chan owned the company. But in October 2023, while negotiating with the Solano County city of Rio Vista to display fireworks at an anniversary celebration, the company listed Chee as 'Owner/CEO,' Jack Lee as operations manager and Neil Li as general manager. There was no mention of Chan.
'Devastating Pyrotechnics currently employs 3 full-time individuals and maintains dozens of licensed and trained pyrotechnicians,' said a letter from Li to the city. 'All staff and technicians working on your display will be fully trained, federally approved, Devastating Pyrotechnics employees.'
A year earlier, while bidding to produce Pinole's Fourth of July fireworks show, Devastating Pyrotechnics listed Chee as a 'licensed ATF explosives importer & manufacturer.' The company said then that its administrative staff consisted of Chee, Lee and senior show producer Craig Cutright, who now owns Blackstar Fireworks and is a volunteer firefighter for the Esparto Fire Protection District.
The transfer and inserting of ignitors into fireworks is closely regulated. At the last ATF inspection a year ago, federal authorities found the company had properly stored the more powerful display fireworks in the storage containers which line the nearby agricultural fields.
After the explosion, Devastating Fireworks disabled its website, replacing it with a statement attributed to management.
'Our hearts and thoughts are with those we lost, their families, and everyone impacted in our community,' the statement read. 'We are grateful for the swift response of law enforcement and emergency personnel. Our focus will remain on those directly impacted by this tragedy, and we will cooperate with the proper authorities in their investigation.'
In past communications with cities, the company said it had safely put on fireworks displays for cities including San Jose and Redwood City, at a private inauguration party for the late San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, and at amusement parks and casinos.
The precise cause of the blast in Esparto is under investigation. Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, a leading trade group, said that while explosions of commercial-grade fireworks are extremely rare, they are generally caused by human error. 'A product is not just going to self-propagate,' she said.
She said that the building that was engulfed, based on footage she's seen, was not equipped for fireworks storage. She said it could have been a place where fireworks were being temporarily held, loaded for shipment or prepped for shows. In all of these cases, she said, the facility would have required licensing or the work would have had to abide by certain standards.
Often, for example, such facilities are built with noncombustible materials and equipped with rods and plates that personnel can touch to discharge static electricity. One of the riskiest activities performed in such buildings, which she called a potential 'pack house' or 'preparation area,' is installing 'electric matches' on the fireworks so they can be detonated from afar, for public shows. This action can accidentally prompt a deadly spark.
'We're all kind of eager to find out exactly what happened there,' Heckman said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CBS News
12 hours ago
- CBS News
Farm sues over deadly Esparto fireworks explosion, claiming crop loss and negligence
The first civil lawsuit stemming from the deadly fireworks warehouse explosion in Esparto that shook the entire community three weeks ago has been filed in Yolo County Superior Court. It's not on behalf of the families of the seven workers killed in the blast, though lawsuits are expected to be filed in the near future, but rather from a nearby farm. Etta James Farming LLC, based out of Knights Landing, is suing for what attorneys claim to be hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to their crops and farming business when the July 1 explosion sparked the Oakdale Fire, which burned nearly 80 acres of nearby land. "This is not a major corporate farming operation. This is an area where most farms are owned by people who make their living by farming and if crops don't come through one year, that has a major impact on them and their families," said Christopher Rodriguez, attorney for Etta James Farming. The lawsuit alleges 24 acres of wheat and 50 acres of canario bean crops burned. "The damage was not only to the crops themselves, but also to the farming equipment being used to farm those crops," Rodriguez said. Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the company Devastating Pyrotechnics and its CEO Kenneth Chee; Blackstar Fireworks and its owner Craig Cutright; Sam Machado and up to 200 unnamed "Does" that the suit alleges are not yet publicly known. The two companies have had their fireworks licenses suspended by the state. Cutright and Machado both have connections to local law enforcement agencies, as CBS Sacramento has reported. Machado is a Lieutenant with the Yolo County Sheriff's Office; he owned and lived on the property where the warehouse exploded, his home destroyed. Machado's wife, Tammy, was a non-sworn, administrative employee of the sheriff's office. Both are currently on leave pending the investigation. Cutright serves as an Esparto Volunteer Firefighter, also currently on leave, with business connections to both Blackstar Fireworks and Devastating Pyrotechnics. "The incident, which was preventable, should never have happened," Rodriguez said. The lawsuit alleges the defendants are responsible for causing the explosion and fire that followed and are negligent in not doing enough to prevent it. Among the long list of allegations in the lawsuit are that Devastating Pyrotechnics and its operators failed to follow safety protocols, that explosives were not properly stored or inspected, that they failed to properly train employees and that there was no notification of hazardous materials being stored. The lawsuit reads that the defendants were "...part of an unlawful and unpermitted commercial-grade fireworks operation that, upon information and belief, included the storage and sale of illegal fireworks to members of the public..." and goes on to allege that the defendants, "...failed to comply with basic safety standards, instead conducting operations at the Fireworks Facility in a reckless manner that they knew or should have known caused an unreasonable risk of catastrophic explosion and fire." Concerning Machado, the lawsuit alleges he had "actual knowledge" that the other defendants were conducting illegal and unpermitted business. The lawsuit further claims that Machado, in turn, "...realized substantial financial benefits." As CBS Sacramento has reported, the land was not permitted at the local level to store fireworks. It was zoned only for agricultural use. "There's a concept in the law called res ipsa loquitur, the incident speaks for itself. As I mentioned, you don't get a devastating explosion like this where there are appropriate procedures in place," Rodriguez said. California's state fire marshal, the lead in the investigation, told CBS Sacramento in recent interviews that fireworks explosions like this are rare because they do not happen when the state's stringent fireworks rules and regulations are followed. The investigation into the explosion's origin and any potential wrongdoing is ongoing and no one has been charged with a crime. Friday, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, alongside Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez and Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, asked the California Department of Justice to join Cal Fire in leading the investigation. Attorney General Rob Bonta has not yet responded to the county's request. As families of the victims told CBS Sacramento, they are also pushing for transparency and answers as to who is responsible for the deadly explosion. Lawsuits are expected to be filed on behalf of the victims individually in the near future. CBS Sacramento reached out to all of the parties named in this lawsuit before publishing this story. None provided a comment.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Elk Grove illegal fireworks enforcement results in fines of $330k
Elk Grove officials have intensified their Fourth of July illegal fireworks enforcement, resulting in increased citations and fines.


San Francisco Chronicle
18 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
UC Berkeley professor slaying: Ex-wife accused of plotting killing to remain in custody before trial
A judge in Greece ruled that Konstantina Michelidaki will remain in jail ahead of her trial for allegedly killing her ex-husband, UC Berkeley professor Przemyslaw Jeziorski. Michelidaki is accused of taking part in a plot to kill Jeziorski. Four other men allegedly involved in Jeziorski's killing were also ordered to remain behind bars ahead of trial. Alexandros Pasiatas, Michelidaki's attorney, confirmed the judge's ruling in a text exchange with the Chronicle. Pasiatas previously asserted that Michelidaki had no involvement in orchestrating Jeziorski's death. Michelidaki faces moral accomplice charges. Two Albanian nationals and a Bulgarian national were charged with being accomplices. A fourth man, Christos Dounias, was charged with carrying out the killing. Dounias allegedly confessed to the crime, according to CNN, citing a leaked police report. The Chronicle could not independently verify the contents of that report. A masked gunman shot and killed Jeziorski in Athens on July 4, while he was on his way to pick up his children from Michelidaki's house. Jeziorski traveled to Athens for a custody case over whether he could take his children on vacation. On July 3, he won the right to take his children out of Greece, according to Robert Kowalski, a close friend of Jeziorski. Jeziorski and Michelidaki shared custody of 10-year-old twins who, as of last week, were under the care of the state in Athens, according to Pasiatas. Jeziorski and Michelidaki divorced in 2024, but were embroiled in a child custody and property battle at the time of his death, court records show. Jeziorski sought a restraining order against Michelidaki, saying he feared for his life, records show. Jeziorski alleged that Dounias assaulted him twice in the summer of 2024 in the restraining order petition.