Gender reveal parties are a controversial enough practice without getting pyrotechnics involved. Yet, dangerous gender reveals — especially ones that cause enormous fires — have been weirdly popular for the past few years. As it turns out, the desire to announce the genitalia of your baby through smoke bombs, fireworks, and other clearly phallic projectiles could now lead to jail time.
On Tuesday, a Southern California couple were charged with involuntary manslaughter for their alleged part in setting off a smoke bomb to reveal the sex of their unborn baby at a gender reveal celebration on September 5, 2020. Upon ignition, this single firework event then caused the El Dorado fire, which lasted the better part of a month, burned more than 22,000 acres in the San Bernardino National Forest area, injured two firefighters and killed a third working to contain the blaze.
