United States: Seven souls remain untraced following a fierce detonation that shattered the stillness of rural Northern California late Tuesday, reducing a fireworks depot to rubble and igniting a blaze that devoured acres of farmland. The tremor and fiery display triggered evacuations and paralyzed the surrounding enclave.

A woman, grief etched across her voice, confirmed to ABC7 News that three of the missing are her kin—two of whom were reared in San Francisco’s urban sprawl.

Cal Fire officials relayed that emergency operatives, alongside the estate’s custodian, are sweeping the charred remnants with aerial drones and thermal sensors in hopes of locating the absent. It remains unclear whether the vanished individuals were employed by the site or resided in nearby domiciles.

Authorities implored citizens to steer clear of the blast radius, situated near Esparto in Yolo County—roughly 40 miles northwest of Sacramento. The combustion rattled the night sky with a barrage of fireworks, transforming the structure into a scorched skeleton and sparking secondary wildfires that danced across dry fields.

The origin of the blast is still under forensic scrutiny.

“The inferno must be allowed to subside naturally. Only then can explosive specialists proceed inside, secure the perimeter, and commence their meticulous sweep,” the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office stated on Tuesday evening, according to abc7news.com.

By sunrise Wednesday, the fire’s spread had been restrained to approximately 80 acres (33 hectares), though not before singeing cultivated lands and jeopardizing nearby infrastructure.

Cal Fire disclosed that the parcel belongs to a licensee with active authorization to manage pyrotechnics. “Occurrences of this magnitude are seldom, as establishments of this nature must strictly adhere to both state-level protocols and overarching federal ordinances for explosive containment,” the department noted.

Records from the State Fire Marshal’s digital archive identify Blackstar Fireworks as the facility’s licensed proprietor. The named owner did not reply to outreach from The Associated Press.

Governor Gavin Newsom’s office acknowledged the severity of the calamity, affirming deployment of both terrestrial and aerial emergency assets.

“The State Fire Marshal dispatched its arson and explosive analysis unit, and remains on standby to escalate support as warranted,” read a post by the governor’s office on the platform X, as per abc7news.com.

The detonation’s fallout has sent tremors beyond Yolo County. Officials from Sutter and Yuba counties announced they are scrambling to reconfigure Independence Day festivities after their fireworks caches were obliterated in the blast.