Fireworks Plant Blast Hurts 2, Man Missing

A spectacular explosion at a fireworks plant early this morning leveled at least 20 small structures at the 160-acre facility, injured two people and possibly killed the person thought to have caused the blast.

The explosion, which was heard 30 miles away, occurred about 1:10 a.m. in a storage bunker at Celebrity Fireworks Co. It ripped through concrete walls and a foot of dirt covering the bunker. Large chunks of concrete and metal were hurled as far as half a mile. They sliced through heavy power lines, knocked out hundreds of windows in a nearby housing development and punched holes in rooftops.

Only a hole was left where the 100-foot bunker had stood. It had stored approximately 200 pounds of powder and a large quantity of shells.

Wife Called Police

Minutes before the blast, police received a call from the wife of a Celebrity employee. She said she and her husband had argued and he had threatened to blow up the plant, according to Rialto Fire Department Capt. Randy Emmons.

The employee, Eric Garcia, 24, had keys to all the bunkers at the facility. He has not been found.

The explosion occurred in a mile-square area shared by three fireworks firms for storage and production. It was in the same area where a blast in July at Astro Pyrotechnics killed one man. The fire this morning burned for 45 minutes before being brought under control by firefighters.

“I looked out and saw a glow, then a flash and a big explosion and all the windows came in,” said Mark Uhler, 36, who lives a quarter of a mile from the blast. “A big mushroom of flame went up at least 500 feet in the air. . . . Right after that, a big chunk of concrete came down through the roof, hit a beam and shattered right behind my baby’s bed.”

Girl Hurt by Glass

His 2-year-old daughter, Kimberly, was uninjured, but Tonia Uhler, his niece who lives in the house next door, suffered leg bruises when the windows in her house blew in. Also injured in the blast was Leo Ohta, an employee for Trojan Fireworks, who was working about 200 yards from the blast and received cuts from flying debris.

Company officials said Garcia had worked for Celebrity for about a year. Jean Starr, the company’s area manager, said “He was a nice young man who had a lot going for him. . . . (He) always seemed happy, smiling.”

She added that when she heard her company was wiped out in the blast, “I thought ‘How could that be?’ But when I got here, it was.”