Parents get excited when they’re having a baby. Their life is changing, and they want to celebrate all the steps leading up to the baby’s birth. Often, they want to celebrate learning the gender of the baby, turning it into a big party where they reveal the gender to friends and family. It can be exciting, but some parents have taken it to dangerous levels and created the most dangerous gender reveal parties of all time.
Pipe Bombs
At a 2019 gender reveal party in Knoxville, Iowa, a family wanted their gender reveal to be explosive. The goal was to reveal the baby’s gender in a cloud of brightly colored smoke. However, the couple used gunpowder as their colored powder and metal tubing instead of something like PVC as the case. The explosion from the reveal accidentally shot metal pieces through the air, resulting in a death.
El Dorado Wildfires
In 2020, a couple threw a gender reveal party in El Dorado Ranch Park in California. It was an incredibly dry and hot September, and this couple used a pyrotechnic device to reveal their baby’s gender. Things didn’t go according to plan, and over 22,744 acres of California burned, sending thousands out of their home and some to the hospital. Firefighters fought the fire for 71 days.
Ultimately, being irresponsible and ignoring dangerous environmental conditions are some of the most common causes of wildfires. A gender reveal party can be fun, but it never needs to be taken to the level where something like this can happen.
Tucson Wildfires
Arizona is a hot and dry state with prime conditions for wildfires. In 2018, a couple used Tannerite, a form of explosive target that people use for firearms practice, to help with their gender reveal. This material contains oxidizers and fuel to create explosions, and people typically only use small quantities.
At the party, they used too much Tannerite, and the kit caused a huge blast that ended up causing a fire. This fire burned 45,000 acres of the Green Valley National Forest, and the father who built the bomb had to pay for over 8 million dollars’ worth of damages.
Gender reveal parties can be dangerous, but they shouldn’t be. It should be a time when friends and family can get together and celebrate exciting news. However, in the age of social media and virality, everyone wants to one-up the last party. Instead, go easy and have fun in a responsible way.
