Jamie Groshong loves baseball. Coming from an athletic family, he was a member of the Bella Vista baseball team.”Both my parents are athletes, and they’re awesome,” Groshong said. “But they have always supported me throughout the baseball journey.” In 2023, he’d already been talking with college recruiters in the hopes of playing college ball for a Southern California team.All of that changed in a single moment three summers ago at a neighborhood fireworks show, as he tried to light and throw an illegal firework.”And, as soon as my, my buddy went like this with the lighter, it, it jumped from here to there,” Groshong said. Groshong points out that the fuse almost immediately burned down to the black powder in the explosive ball.The firework went off, taking Jamie Groshong’s hand with it. “I didn’t have a baseball coach to go back to,” Groshong said. “It was like, ‘OK, life now, like, we skip the baseball, and this is real world.'”He isn’t alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last year, 15 people died, and an estimated 13,000 people were injured by fireworks nationwide.According to Cal Fire arson investigator Nicholas Schroeder, officials see almost any type of celebration.”Side street takeovers, celebrations of World Series or soccer games or football games anywhere,” Schroeder said. “Crowds are typically a symbol of pyrotechnics or they’re some way or form.”Schroeder said the number of fireworks hitting the streets has been growing year-by-year. But there’s a bigger problem: what people may consider fireworks might actually be homemade explosives. These are what the industry calls “overcharged fireworks”: more explosive, more dangerous, and completely illegal.In the past five years, the number of illegal and overcharged fireworks has been growing. In 2021, San Joaquin County seized 2,988 pounds of illegal fireworks. In 2025, it was 16,755 pounds.Since 2022, the Sacramento Police Department has had 142 fireworks seizures. Cal Fire says statewide, the numbers are even higher.”Historically, we’ve been able to confiscate about 250,000 pounds and with our local fire departments, police departments,” State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant said. “And last year, we had over 1 million pounds of illegal fireworks.”Berlant says those overcharged fireworks are the same kinds of explosives investigators say were being manufactured along County Road 86-A in Esparto, California. Fireworks that exploded on July 1st, 2025, killing seven people.That explosion, though, exposed a much bigger problem.”A decade-long conspiracy that turned the property of a former Sheriff’s lieutenant, Sam Machado, into an illegal enterprise that imports and sells illegal explosives on the black market,” the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office said.Investigators say the Esparto companies were making illegal fireworks. The company names included “Bean Day Ho” and “F.T.S” among others. But those are far from the only products being sold on the black market. Illegal fireworks are coming through the ports or being brought across the state line. They’re financing criminal enterprises.”It very much is organized crime,” Berlant said. “And, you know, very much the intel that we received is that the penalties for fireworks and selling illegal fireworks is much less than drugs or ammunition. And so it’s become a good revenue source for organized crime.”The profit from those sales then goes to gangs who are using fireworks as fundraisers to pay for other criminal activities. The sales are lucrative, and the penalties are much lower than for other crimes.”And then that, you know, complicates our ability to, to really track it down because there’s so many tentacles and it builds a bigger case and it takes more time and more resources,” Berlant said.The cases of illegal fireworks sales span the state of California.In 2023, San Jose police seized 38,000 pounds of fireworks along with drugs, cash, and a gun.On July 3, 2025, there was another huge bust in Los Angeles.June 23 of this year, Pasadena County seized 10,000 pounds of fireworks from what they are calling a “criminal street gang” smuggling fireworks into California from Nevada.Those fireworks are taken off the streets by departments across the state and taken to an undisclosed Cal Fire storage facility somewhere in the middle of the California desert. There they are stored in ATF-approved bunkers until they can be destroyed. Sometimes, the number of seizures is so high that Cal Fire has to tell departments to wait to deliver until they can make more room.”We have no true metrics on what black market explosives are going for on a day-to-day basis,” Schroeder said. “The ones that we do come across, we see what they sell them for.”Investigators say gangs selling illegal fireworks are an increasing problem. In the past four years, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office said fireworks seizures also included 25 guns, along with drugs like marijuana, cocaine and meth. For Sacramento police over the same time period, they seized 26 weapons with fireworks. Eight of those arrested were known gang members.”We’re really having to kind of pivot our strategy, not just chasing every 911 call that comes in on the 4th of July to try to stop somebody from shooting off illegal fireworks, and really narrowing in to, ‘Who are the enterprises, where are the individuals?'” Berlant said.The fireworks haven’t been hard to find. A scan of social media by KCRA 3 Investigates found dozens of ads throughout California. They skirt algorithms by listing game controllers with fireworks in the background, saying “DM for the menu” in order to get prices.”I did not realize the just the sheer scale of what was involved here,” said state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento. “Both in terms of the quote unquote fireworks themselves, the explosion and the pyrotechnics, but also in terms of the criminal networks that exist, that are connected throughout the state and beyond our borders.”Cabaldon represents Yolo County, including the community of Esparto, where the massive fireworks explosions happened in July of 2025. After that tragedy, he said he saw a need to close the legal loopholes that street gangs and organized crime can exploit.”In addition to, you know, joining the families in the community in their mourning, in their rebuilding of their lives, we also had needed to make sure that this can’t happen again,” Cabaldon said. “And so, we introduced legislation in order to try to tackle some of the glaring gaps.”They are gaps that can allow dangerous explosives to hit the streets, funding criminal activities, and hurting people. It’s something that Jamie Groshong knows all too well.”I think the selling of fireworks, I think if they’re not meant to be somewhere, they shouldn’t be there,” Groshong said. “There’s not a whole lot that’s going to benefit from that.”Still, Groshong hasn’t let that accident stop him. He has a new arm from Psyonic, a leading prosthetics company. He’s swinging a bat again, even throwing out a pitch at a Giants game. “If I got a second chance to do it, I would, and I would be better. We kind of tweaked my throwing after, but it was, it was awesome.”While those companies operating from Esparto are now, in effect, defunct, Cal Fire still doesn’t know how big an impact that will have on the illegal fireworks market. As for Cabaldon’s bill, it passed the Senate and is making its way through the Assembly.Groshong hasn’t let the accident stop him; he’s still moving forward, after one of the hardest lessons learned about the dangers of illegal fireworks.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
Jamie Groshong loves baseball.
Coming from an athletic family, he was a member of the Bella Vista baseball team.
“Both my parents are athletes, and they’re awesome,” Groshong said. “But they have always supported me throughout the baseball journey.”
In 2023, he’d already been talking with college recruiters in the hopes of playing college ball for a Southern California team.
All of that changed in a single moment three summers ago at a neighborhood fireworks show, as he tried to light and throw an illegal firework.
“And, as soon as my, my buddy went like this with the lighter, it, it jumped from here to there,” Groshong said.
Groshong points out that the fuse almost immediately burned down to the black powder in the explosive ball.
Marilyn Groshong
Jamie Groshong playing baseball for Bella Vista High School
The firework went off, taking Jamie Groshong’s hand with it.
“I didn’t have a baseball coach to go back to,” Groshong said. “It was like, ‘OK, life now, like, we skip the baseball, and this is [the] real world.'”
He isn’t alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last year, 15 people died, and an estimated 13,000 people were injured by fireworks nationwide.
According to Cal Fire arson investigator Nicholas Schroeder, officials see almost any type of celebration.
“Side street takeovers, celebrations of World Series or soccer games or football games anywhere,” Schroeder said. “Crowds are typically a symbol of pyrotechnics or they’re some way or form.”
Schroeder said the number of fireworks hitting the streets has been growing year-by-year. But there’s a bigger problem: what people may consider fireworks might actually be homemade explosives.
These are what the industry calls “overcharged fireworks”: more explosive, more dangerous, and completely illegal.
In the past five years, the number of illegal and overcharged fireworks has been growing. In 2021, San Joaquin County seized 2,988 pounds of illegal fireworks. In 2025, it was 16,755 pounds.
Since 2022, the Sacramento Police Department has had 142 fireworks seizures. Cal Fire says statewide, the numbers are even higher.
“Historically, we’ve been able to confiscate about 250,000 pounds and with our local fire departments, police departments,” State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant said. “And last year, we had over 1 million pounds of illegal fireworks.”
Berlant says those overcharged fireworks are the same kinds of explosives investigators say were being manufactured along County Road 86-A in Esparto, California. Fireworks that exploded on July 1st, 2025, killing seven people.
That explosion, though, exposed a much bigger problem.
“A decade-long conspiracy that turned the property of a former Sheriff’s lieutenant, Sam Machado, into an illegal enterprise that imports and sells illegal explosives on the black market,” the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office said.
KCRA3
Bean Day Ho fireworks confiscated by Cal Fire
Investigators say the Esparto companies were making illegal fireworks. The company names included “Bean Day Ho” and “F.T.S” among others. But those are far from the only products being sold on the black market. Illegal fireworks are coming through the ports or being brought across the state line.
They’re financing criminal enterprises.
“It very much is organized crime,” Berlant said. “And, you know, very much the intel that we received is that the penalties for fireworks and selling illegal fireworks is much less than drugs or ammunition. And so it’s become a good revenue source for organized crime.”
The profit from those sales then goes to gangs who are using fireworks as fundraisers to pay for other criminal activities. The sales are lucrative, and the penalties are much lower than for other crimes.
“And then that, you know, complicates our ability to, to really track it down because there’s so many tentacles and it builds a bigger case and it takes more time and more resources,” Berlant said.
The cases of illegal fireworks sales span the state of California.
San Jose Police Department
Cash, drugs and guns seized by San Jose PD in fireworks seizure
In 2023, San Jose police seized 38,000 pounds of fireworks along with drugs, cash, and a gun.
On July 3, 2025, there was another huge bust in Los Angeles.
Pasadena Police Department
Fireworks seized in Pasadena
June 23 of this year, Pasadena County seized 10,000 pounds of fireworks from what they are calling a “criminal street gang” smuggling fireworks into California from Nevada.
Those fireworks are taken off the streets by departments across the state and taken to an undisclosed Cal Fire storage facility somewhere in the middle of the California desert. There they are stored in ATF-approved bunkers until they can be destroyed. Sometimes, the number of seizures is so high that Cal Fire has to tell departments to wait to deliver until they can make more room.
“We have no true metrics on what black market explosives are going for on a day-to-day basis,” Schroeder said. “The ones that we do come across, we see what they sell them for.”
Investigators say gangs selling illegal fireworks are an increasing problem. In the past four years, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office said fireworks seizures also included 25 guns, along with drugs like marijuana, cocaine and meth. For Sacramento police over the same time period, they seized 26 weapons with fireworks. Eight of those arrested were known gang members.
“We’re really having to kind of pivot our strategy, not just chasing every 911 call that comes in on the 4th of July to try to stop somebody from shooting off illegal fireworks, and really narrowing in to, ‘Who are the enterprises, where are the individuals?'” Berlant said.
KCRA 3
Illegal fireworks for sale on social media
The fireworks haven’t been hard to find. A scan of social media by KCRA 3 Investigates found dozens of ads throughout California. They skirt algorithms by listing game controllers with fireworks in the background, saying “DM for the menu” in order to get prices.
“I did not realize the just the sheer scale of what was involved here,” said state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento. “Both in terms of the quote unquote fireworks themselves, the explosion and the pyrotechnics, but also in terms of the criminal networks that exist, that are connected throughout the state and beyond our borders.”
Cabaldon represents Yolo County, including the community of Esparto, where the massive fireworks explosions happened in July of 2025. After that tragedy, he said he saw a need to close the legal loopholes that street gangs and organized crime can exploit.
“In addition to, you know, joining the families in the community in their mourning, in their rebuilding of their lives, we also had needed to make sure that this can’t happen again,” Cabaldon said. “And so, we introduced legislation in order to try to tackle some of the glaring gaps.”
They are gaps that can allow dangerous explosives to hit the streets, funding criminal activities, and hurting people. It’s something that Jamie Groshong knows all too well.
“I think the selling of fireworks, I think if they’re not meant to be somewhere, they shouldn’t be there,” Groshong said. “There’s not a whole lot that’s going to benefit from that.”
Still, Groshong hasn’t let that accident stop him. He has a new arm from Psyonic, a leading prosthetics company. He’s swinging a bat again, even throwing out a pitch at a Giants game. “If I got a second chance to do it, I would, and I would be better. We kind of tweaked my throwing after, but it was, it was awesome.”
While those companies operating from Esparto are now, in effect, defunct, Cal Fire still doesn’t know how big an impact that will have on the illegal fireworks market.
As for Cabaldon’s bill, it passed the Senate and is making its way through the Assembly.
Groshong hasn’t let the accident stop him; he’s still moving forward, after one of the hardest lessons learned about the dangers of illegal fireworks.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google