Companies that sold gender-reveal fireworks which ignited California wildfire agree to $4m settlement | California wildfires
Nearly six years after a couple’s gender reveal stunt sparked a deadly fire in southern California, companies selling the pyrotechnic device have reached a multimillion-dollar settlement.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the central district of California announced Tuesday that Hubbard, Ohio-based Wholesale Fireworks Corp and its subsidiary, American Fireworks Wholesale LLC, have agreed to pay more than $4 million. A third company, Miami-based Pink or Blue Gender Team Inc, agreed to pay $50,000.
The payments settled civil claims filed on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service in the wake of the El Dorado fire, which burned 22,744 acres (9,204 hectares) and destroyed nine structures and more than a dozen outbuildings. Forest Service estimates of damage were more than $41 million.
Charles Morton, 39, a veteran Forest Service firefighter, died 12 days after the fire while fighting the blaze that spread through the San Bernardino national forest.
The settlement caps a legal saga that includes a criminal case against the couple who accidentally started a fire that quickly ignited dry grass when they threw gender-reveal smoke bombs for a photo op in El Dorado Ranch park on Sept. 5, 2020.
Federal prosecutors said the devices should never have been sold in California, where they are illegal, and faulted the companies for failing to include adequate warnings that smoke bombs could start fires. Prosecutors argued that the companies were liable for their role in designing, importing, distributing, marketing and advertising smoke bombs that were also allegedly of an unsafe design.
Representatives for the three companies did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
In 2024, Refugio Jimenez Jr and Angela Renee Jimenez pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges for their roles in starting the fire. Refugio Jimenez was sentenced to one year in prison and two years of supervised release, while Angela Jimenez was sentenced to one year of supervised release, according to the San Bernardino district attorney’s office. The couple was also ordered to pay approximately $1.8 million in compensation.
Gender reveal parties grew in popularity throughout the 2010s, but became more extreme as cake cuttings and balloon drops were eclipsed by dramatic displays involving rifles, airplanes and guns. crocodiles. Gender reveals gone wrong can sometimes result in devastating consequences, including injuries, extensive property damage, and death.
A border agent sparked the Arizona Sawmill fire in 2017 when he shot an explosive target for a gender reveal party in the Santa Rita foothills. In 2019, a 56-year-old woman in Iowa died after she was struck by debris from a pipe bomb mistakenly made for a gender reveal party. That same year, a small plane in Texas crashed after dumping hundreds of gallons of pink water for a gender reveal; The pilot and passenger survived.
Among those now warning against exaggerated gender reveals is the woman who started the trend in 2008. “Who cares what gender the baby is?” Jenna Karvunidis wrote: 2019 Facebook postexplains how his attitude towards the practice has changed.
