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An explosion caused a gender reveal party to end in a horrific way in rural Iowa on Saturday. A guest at the party, a woman aged 56, was struck by a piece of debris in a freak accident that resulted in her crumpling to the ground, motionless.
When police arrived, they found out that she had passed away.
For those out of the loop, gender reveal parties are unusually popular, baby shower-like parties where expecting parents will set up some elaborate contraption or scenario in which something is revealed to be either blue or pink. This is to indicate whether they’re expecting a boy or a girl.
As you might imagine, the practice has its critics. Many have argued that the narrative of binary expectations for a child based on gender is regressive. Others have pointed out that gender reveal parties are almost always engineered for maximum social media impact, and some have gone so far as to call the practice “attention-seeking.”
In rural Knoxville, Iowa, one such party went horribly awry when the device meant to indicate the unborn baby’s gender detonated. The device was supposed to explode harmlessly and then leave behind a cloud of colored smoke, either blue or pink.
Instead, when the device detonated, it sent shrapnel flying into the crowd of guests and struck one of them. The victim, a 56-year-old woman who has not had her name released, instantly hit the ground and remained motionless. Horrified partygoers called the police immediately.
Tragically, the victim expired on the scene before the police even arrived. The device meant to be the centerpiece to a fun, harmless party turned out to be a dangerous apparatus in disguise. No details have been released as to whether the parents made the device themselves or if they purchased it from a company or individual.
This story has some similarities to another botched gender reveal party. In 2018, a man in Tucson, Arizona fired at a target that was meant to expel pink or blue smoke. Instead, it emitted a number of fiery sparks that caught the underbrush ablaze. This is thought to have been the origin of the Sawmill Fire, which caused $8 million in damage.
