The Illegal Fireworks Pipeline Behind L.A.’s Nightly Explosions

LATE ON A WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON LAST SPRING, Nicholas Schroeder, an arson and bomb investigator for the state fire marshal’s office, got a tip. A warehouse near a high school in the southeast Los Angeles County city of Commerce was stuffed full of illegal fireworks — and could potentially blow sky high at any minute. 

Schroeder, who often works side by side with his explosive-sniffing German shepherd “K-9 Flash,” tore up his schedule and got out to the warehouse. What he saw, as he would later detail in a search warrant affidavit, bore all the signs of a massive black-market fireworks operation.