Gershom Slonim is a Cal Fire arson and bomb investigator who has publicly criticized his agency’s handling of the Esparto fireworks warehouse explosion that killed seven workers on July 1, 2025. He says he is a whistleblower who tried to prevent the tragedy in Esparto.
He sat for an emotional interview at The Sacramento Bee, and talked about his role, leading to our story about how he tried to prevent the deadly blast.
Here are details about who he is:
Slonim, 38, grew up on Maui’s north shore in the town of Paia and began his law enforcement career as a Maui police officer. He said he is Jewish and part Kickapoo. “My last name ‘Slonim’ is a town in Belarus that my family used to disguise their Jewish last name, ‘Debruxelle,’ when they were fleeing Nazi occupation.”
Slonim added that he was inspired to serve by his grandfather Morris. J. Slonim, an Air Force colonel. “He was so grateful for the United States taking our family in,” Slonim said.
He joined the Maui police in 2010 and the U.S. Air Force in 2015, where he became a senior airman and an explosives and bomb disposal expert. He still serves in the reserve. While on active duty, Slonim earned a master’s degree in arson and explosives investigation from Oklahoma State University. In 2018, while assigned to anti-terrorism duty during the first President Donald Trump administration, he received an achievement award from the Navy stating that his “technical prowess armed the Emergency Operations...
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