California Wildfire Not The First To Be Caused By Gender Reveal PartyPA Images
Over the weekend, a massive wildfire spread across the Californian city of Yucaipa after a ‘pyrotechnic device’ used at a gender reveal party ignited the surrounding land.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection confirmed the ‘smoke generating’ device was the cause of the fire, which began just after 10.20am on Saturday, September 5, at the El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa.
The consequences were devastating, with the fire engulfing more than 7,000 acres of land. However, this isn’t the first time a gender reveal party has caused such destruction. In fact, it isn’t even the most damage that has been caused in this type of situation.
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Gender Reveal Party Blamed For Starting Huge Californian WildfirePA Images
From setting off fireworks to shooting makeshift targets, it seems some people are willing to go to the extreme when making the announcement, in front of their loved ones, of whether they’re having a baby boy or a girl.
Yet, as we have seen, these actions often have dangerous and sometimes fatal consequences. In one such instance, in 2017, party-goers shot at a target packed with the highly explosive Tannerite, which exploded and subsequently ignited the surrounding land, which led to a wildfire in Arizona spanning 47,000 acres.
The dad-to-be who was responsible for it, Border Patrol agent Dennis Dickey, was handed five years’ probation for a misdemeanour violation by the US Forest Service and fine for more than $8 million. ‘It was a complete accident,’ Dickey insisted at the time, The New York Post reports. He said he felt ‘absolutely horrible’ about it, adding: ‘It was probably one of the worst days of my life.’
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California Wildfire Gender RevealPA Images
More recently, in April 2018, a car emitting blue smoke to celebrate a baby boy reveal burst into flames in Australia. ‘This is the first one I’ve seen like this,’ a spokeswoman for the Queensland Police Service told The Washington Post at the time. ‘Usually, people just have a cake.’
Last September, a gender reveal party caused a plane crash in Texas when an individual hired the aircraft to surprise a friend. The pilot was flying at low altitude when it dumped more than 300 gallons of pink water from the plane, causing the aircraft to stall. Thankfully, the pilot was not injured.
One month later, a family in Iowa accidentally made a pipe bomb while experimenting with ‘different types of explosive material’ in the hopes of creating a gender reveal device, as per CNN.
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grandmother killed during gender revealKCCI
When the device exploded, it sent shrapnel flying, striking 56-year-old grandmother Pamela Kreimeyer in the head and killing her. ‘This family got together for what they thought was going to be a happy event with no intent for anyone to get hurt,’ Marion County Sheriff Jason Sandholdt said.
Things are getting so out of hand, in fact, that the woman largely credited for creating the gender reveal party craze recently told anyone holding them to ‘stop’, describing the often over-the-top parties as ‘stupid’ and pleading with anyone considering having one not to.
Hopefully, people will heed her advice and consider all of the risks before thinking of holding such a party in the future.
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