The El Dorado fire in California ignited as a family was using a “pyrotechnic device” to announce the gender of a new baby, the authorities said.
An elaborate plan to reveal a baby’s gender went disastrously wrong when a “smoke-generating pyrotechnic device” ignited a wildfire that consumed thousands of acres east of Los Angeles over the holiday weekend, the authorities said. The device ignited four-foot-tall grass at El Dorado Ranch Park on Saturday morning, and efforts to douse the flames with water bottles proved fruitless, Capt. Bennet Milloy of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said Monday. The family called 911 and to report the fire and shared photos with investigators. By Monday, the fire had burned more than 7,300 acres and was only 7 percent contained, the authorities said. Evacuations were ordered, including in parts of Yucaipa, a nearby city of nearly 54,000. It was just one of several fires that continued to burn out of control up and down California on Monday, as extreme heat roasted much of the state. No injuries or serious structural damage were immediately reported. Criminal charges were being considered, but would not be filed before the fire is extinguished, Captain Milloy said. Cal Fire could also ask those responsible to reimburse the cost of fighting the fire, he added. “I can’t speak on their behalf,” Captain Milloy said of the family, “but personally, I can only imagine how terrible they have to feel for a lot of reasons.” Gender-reveal celebrations became popular about a decade ago as a way for new parents to learn the sex of their child, often in the presence of family and friends. Simple versions of these celebrations often involve couples cutting open pink or blue cakes, or popping balloons filled with pink or blue confetti. While these celebrations started out as intimate events, the rise of social media has turned some gender-reveal parties into spectacles, said Carly Gieseler, an associate professor at York College of the City University of New York, and the author of “Gender-Reveal Parties as Mediated Events: Celebrating Identity in Pink and Blue.
