Texts From Fire Chief, Firefighter after Deadly Esparto, CA, Blast Released

The day after an Esparto fireworks facility without local permits exploded with enough force to register as an earthquake, volunteer firefighter Craig Cutright sent a text message to Fire Chief Curtis Lawrence.

“Just checking in boss man,” he wrote.

Cutright first volunteered with the Esparto Fire Protection District the day after forming his own company, BlackStar Fireworks, in April 2023, following years of work as a pyrotechnics operator for Devastating Pyrotechnics. He resigned two days after the July 1 explosions — the deadliest incident during his tenure — amid an investigation into the blasts tied to the two improperly licensed fireworks operations.

“I think it is best for everyone if I am not associated,” Cutright wrote Lawrence. “It has been a pleasure and honor to work with all of you.” The message goes on to say that Cutright hopes “this is all resolved in the near future and we can get back to doing the things that I love.”

“Craig, we need to have a face to face conversation before you make that decision,” Lawrence responded. “I’ll head your way soon.”

The messages, obtained by The Sacramento Bee through a Public Records Act request, shed light on the relationship between one of the fireworks companies linked to the incident and the fire chief tasked with ensuring those operators adhered to local rules and regulations, highlighting the informal nature of fireworks-event permitting under Lawrence, one of many Yolo County officials who knew fireworks were stored on the property.

The seven people killed by the explosions are believed to have been working for Devastating Pyrotechnics in the busy days ahead of a string of shows scheduled on and around the Fourth of July. But the extent to which Devastating — whose owner is Kenneth Chee, a longtime pyrotechnics operator with a checkered past — or Cutright’s company BlackStar bear responsibility for the explosion remains unclear.

Cal Fire’s investigation into what caused the explosion, which included dozens of search warrants, remains ongoing but is approaching its conclusion, State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant said.

But that investigation will not answer some of the most pressing questions for Esparto residents following the inferno: What did public officials know, and why did they not take steps to ensure the compound was following all safety and permitting requirements?

Because California Attorney General Rob Bonta declined to intercede, despite repeated entreaties from county officials, Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig is tasked with the possibility of bringing public corruption charges in Esparto. That investigation will take a lot longer to complete than Cal Fire’s, Reisig said.

The public will have to wait for answers.

“Obviously, seven people died. This is the most serious kind of case we handle,” Reisig said. “That’s on my mind, all those families that are grieving, the people who lost loved ones, that’s on my mind. It’s on all of us, my entire team. It’s a homicide case.”

Cutright, who has not responded to requests for comment from The Bee, told a reporter from ABC10 the night of the incident that the explosions did not originate with his company. He later told state investigators the same thing, according to sources familiar with the investigation who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The scale of the destruction shocked and infuriated Cutright, according to a different source familiar with the incident who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

“People died,” the source said. “He felt that very hard.”

Kindred spirits

Local public safety agencies quickly recused themselves as primary investigators due to the involvement of Yolo County Sheriff’s Lt. Sam Machado, his wife — a civilian employee of the Sheriff’s Office — and Cutright. The Machados, who own the property where the fireworks companies operated, were placed on administrative leave. Reiko Matsumura, Tammy’s sister and the owner of the property next door, is also a Yolo sheriff’s deputy.

Tammy Machado and Reiko Matsumura’s father, Jerry Matsumura, who owned the Esparto property until his 2015 death and had served as a local fire commissioner, regularly blasted off fireworks for years, sometimes producing full-length shows over his fields with industrial-grade fireworks, longtime locals said.

William Foster spent decades working in the pyrotechnic industry. His friend Randy Feldman called him a few years after he retired from the industry, asking if he would help a young upstart launch his own pyrotechnics company, Foster said in an interview. By then, Foster knew Kenneth Chee, whom he calls Kenny, in passing.

Feldman died in a fireworks accident in 2014 while on his way to a Western Pyrotechnics Association fireworks convention, an organization that also counted Chee, Cutright, Matsumura and Foster as members.

Foster remembered a show Chee produced at a Western Pyrotechnic Association convention that impressed even the most experienced pyrotechnicians. He saw a kindred spirit in Chee.

“He loved fireworks,” Foster said.

Foster remembered helping Chee and Matsumura with one of Devastating’s early shows. The racks the men had built did not meet safety standards, Foster said, so he rebuilt them.

Cutright and Chee have worked together since at least 2019, but Cutright developed concerns about Chee, according to the source familiar with the explosion. Cutright worried that Devastating was hiring unqualified people, and that Chee’s hands-off approach let things fall through the cracks. He thought the disorganization was bad for business.

“It stressed him out the way that Devastating was being run,” the source said.

So Cutright started his own fireworks company, nearby, but distinct from Chee’s. BlackStar Fireworks first registered in April 2023 and was still establishing itself when the explosion happened. Cutright was the company’s sole employee at the time of the blast.

“Neil Li, the general manager, was the onsite business presence,” Chee’s lawyer Douglas Horngrad said in an email. “Mr. Chee only worked with experienced and licensed pyrotechnic operators.”

Li was one of the seven men killed by the blasts.

‘His worst nightmare’

A partially redacted text message between Cutright and Lawrence stated “he is injured.”

The source with knowledge of the incident said that Cutright rented a house on the Machados’ property where he lived with his one of his sons. When the first explosion happened, the son fled the house. Minutes later, a second explosion left nothing standing. The son, in his 20s, was hospitalized with minor injuries, according to the source.

“Craig is shattered by what happened,” the source said. “He is a human being and a good guy who loved fireworks and preached safety. This is his worst nightmare.”

Lawrence, who declined an interview request, told reporters in the days after the incident that he had conducted “site visits” and knew fireworks were present at the rural compound growing in the sheriff’s lieutenant’s backyard. He also said that he never conducted a formal safety inspection or issued a local fire permit for the property.

Even though local permits were never issued, records show that Lawrence played a role in the site’s expansion and operations.

Lawrence assured local building officials that the site was federally licensed. He also advised Cutright on where to potentially store the fireworks, according to emails between Cutright and building officials. Cutright told the county that Lawrence approved of the site for fireworks storage before he started his own fireworks company and began volunteering for the fire district.

The day after Scott Doolittle, Yolo County’s chief building official, visited the property on June 2, 2022, he spoke to Lawrence about the fireworks companies, according to an email Doolittle sent colleagues. Lawrence told him the shipping containers held “safe and sane” fireworks, a type of smaller, consumer-grade fireworks with fewer restrictions on their use than the stronger display fireworks made for big events.

Lawrence told the county that Devastating repackaged and processed fireworks on site and did so outdoors to “simplify the regulations they need to meet for their U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms license.”

Cutright told building officials that he planned to relocate to Yolo County to be closer to the Esparto facility where Devastating operated, and he began looking for property in Yolo County in November 2020,according to a September 2021 email he sent Yolo County Principal Planner Stephanie Cormier.

He planned to build a house then begin storing fireworks. When he found a site up the road from the fireworks compound Devastating had already been operating from, he asked building officials and the local fire department if the site would work for fireworks storage. Building officials asked if there were any requirements or restrictions from the fire district in an August 2021 email.

Lawrence “has no issues with the presence of product at that location,” Cutright told county officials. “And feels it is totally defensible in a wildfire situation.”

‘A brother in our service’

Lawrence described Cutright as “a brother in our service and somebody in our community” in a news conference days after the explosion. Previously obtained records show Lawrence and Cutright worked together closely in Cutright’s capacity as a pyrotechnician. New records provided to The Bee shed more light on their relationship through Cutright’s role as a volunteer firefighter.

Cal Fire revoked the fireworks licenses for companies linked to the Esparto compound after their investigation concluded that Chee, Devastating’s owner, and Cutright, on behalf of BlackStar Fireworks, broke California fireworks laws. Chee has appealed the revocation, Horngrad said.

Some communications between Cutright and Lawrence were provided by the Esparto Fire Protection District in response to a public records request, while the county withheld others after the department concluded they did not pertain to district business. Lawrence’s phone is currently in the possession of the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, which obtained a search warrant for his home, fire station office and electronic devices.

Obtaining a search warrant for a public official’s home is “uncommon,” said Ann Marie Schubert, former Sacramento County district attorney.

“The law says you can get a warrant if you have probable cause to believe a crime has been committed and it’s going to lead to relevant evidence,” she said.“That doesn’t mean that the fire chief is necessarily going to be caught up in it, but it may lead to other evidence.”

The earliest text message provided is a note from Lawrence to Cutright about a pre-employment physical, dated April 10, 2023, one day after BlackStar Fireworks registered in California and three weeks after the firm was first registered in Wyoming.

Weeks later, Cutright asked Lawrence for permission to conduct a small fireworks display at a reunion event. In the exchange, Cutright asked to meet Lawrence to show him the application package for a show that evening, which Cutright went on to produce.

“I can sign it if needed,” Lawrence responded.

Remnants of the explosion

The area near the explosion still reeks of sulfur two months after the tragedy, and shrapnel remains scattered at the compound and surrounding farmland. Where two homes and numerous structures once stood, hollowed out cars and twisted metal of shipping containers remind passersby of the damage done and the unanswered questions.

. “Most people in this town never even knew there was a fireworks storage out there,” said Esparto resident Jerry Tatham. “They should have had better safety, more than just those containers. That’s nuts.”

One of the closest neighbors to the Machado compound, who asked that her name be withheld because she feared retribution, recalled the moment of the first explosion.

It felt like one bomb detonating, followed by more eruptions. Her house shook, she said, and “hot metal” flew over her roof.

“It’s troubling that there was such a big fireworks business there and this happened,” she added. “Someone needs to be held accountable.”

Investigation remains in local hands

Yolo County supervisors, Reisig and Sheriff Tom Lopez asked the state Department of Justice to intervene in the Esparto investigation, and any associated criminal prosecutions. With an outside agency taking the lead, local officials hoped to mitigate concerns over conflicts of interest and inspire public trust in the investigation’s outcome, the county wrote last month in a letter to Bonta.

The involvement of Yolo County officials could “undermine the integrity of the on-going investigations and any subsequent prosecution of responsible parties,” Board Chair Mary Vixie Sandy wrote.

Bonta’s office declined, saying justice officials had “not identified any office-disabling conflict that would require the office to be recused.”

Reisig’s office has four investigators assigned to the case, plus attorneys and support personnel.

“There’s no legal reason that we can’t do it,” he said. “It’s that public perception piece.”

Several other outside agencies are assisting Reisig or conducting their own investigations in Esparto. The ATF is investigating the explosive elements, the FBI is looking at all aspects of public corruption, and other state and federal agencies are helping with financial aspects of the case.

“It’s a massive investigation,” he added.

Schubert, the former Sacramento district attorney, said that the Attorney General’s Office should help with cases such as the Esparto fireworks blasts — with its large scope and entwined web of involved local officials.

“The fact is that seven people lost their lives, and families are desperately waiting for answers,” she said. “And a case of this magnitude is exactly the kind of case that the California Attorney General should step in on and provide the resources necessary to bring the necessary level of investigation.”

The sprawling investigation is also reaching back in time to find out how long the 63-acre span of farmland — once held by Jerry Matsumura and split among his descendants — was a storage site and testing ground for fireworks. Investigators have interviewed multiple former Esparto fire chiefs and searched reams of department documents going back decades to look for fire permits, building plans and inspection records.

“We’ll be talking about Esparto and potential changes in fireworks for many, many years,” Berlant said.

Because California’s regulations are some of the most stringent in the nation, the importance of identifying regulatory oversights or permitting loopholes extends far beyond the state.

“I have no doubt that any lessons learned from this investigation will be used across the nation to make sure that this type of thing doesn’t happen,” he added.