ESPARTO, Calif. —

Yolo County officials saw red flags and even questioned the presence of fireworks at a rural Esparto property years before July's deadly explosion , yet they did nothing about it.

Emails obtained by KCRA 3 Investigates provide new details on the property.

As KCRA first reported, officials knew that the property off County Road 23 in Esparto was being used to store fireworks. In fact, the Chief Building Officer, Scott Doolittle, had been tipped off that the fireworks company was operating there in 2022 . This came as the county was reviewing a building permit for a metal building on the site.

Initially, Sam Machado, the property's owner, was trying to build a facility to be used for processing and storing nuts. That's according to permits and emails from the buildi

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