A Brief History of Disastrous Gender Reveals | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror
"On the 5th of September, 2020, at around 10:20am, an extended family group gathered on the edge of the El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, California..."
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LearningTranscript
00:00On the 5th of September, 2020, at around 10 20am, an extended family group gathered on
00:19the edge of the El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, California.
00:24They were there for a gender reveal party, a celebration intended to reveal the gender
00:30of an as-yet-unborn child in a surprising and dramatic fashion.
00:35Unfortunately, the exact mechanism this family chose for their big reveal would soon result
00:42in a devastating and fatal wildfire, which would go on to ravage the area for months
00:48to come.
00:50It would be just the latest in a string of devastating incidents resulting from failed
00:56gender reveal parties.
01:00The very first gender reveal party was a small, good-natured celebration hosted by blogger
01:06and journalist Jenna Karvounidis.
01:10She shared images of a cake she had baked, plain on the outside but containing coloured
01:15icing on the inside to indicate to her friends and family the gender of her baby.
01:20Pink for a girl, blue for a boy.
01:24The simple idea was a hit, and inspired numerous copycats.
01:29The trend grew in popularity over the next few years, and by the early 2010s gender reveal
01:35events were becoming increasingly elaborate.
01:39No longer satisfied with revealing coloured icing inside cakes, parents-to-be turned to
01:44other, more dramatic reveals.
01:47Boxes filled with coloured helium balloons, balloons filled with coloured powder, coloured
01:53fireworks, piñatas, confetti fountains, smoke bombs, even tyre burnouts.
02:01Creative and original gender reveals garnered praise, hundreds of thousands of likes, and
02:07even media coverage... attention which some parents-to-be couldn't help but pursue.
02:14Given that bigger and more ostentatious reveals would garner more recognition, something of
02:19an arms race began, with parents putting together bigger and bigger spectacles with each passing
02:25year.
02:27Reports of minor incidents and media coverage criticizing the craze ironically only served
02:33to propagate it further.
02:38The desire for a spectacular reveal was what led to one of the first incidents of significant
02:43destruction as a result of a gender reveal party on the 23rd of April 2017.
02:50Dennis Dickey, a border patrol agent, wanted an explosive reveal, and decided to use a
02:56box packed with tannerite, a highly explosive compound designed to detonate when shot with
03:02a firearm.
03:05By adding coloured powder to the box Dickey would be able to create a huge coloured burst
03:10that would no doubt impress his friends and family.
03:15Dickey's group headed out to the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains for the main event
03:19of the party, this despite the fact that a fire watch had been issued covering the area.
03:26A fire watch is a warning given by the National Weather Service when the conditions exist
03:31for wildfires to spread out of control very rapidly.
03:36Predictably, this is exactly what happened.
03:41Dickey's group placed the decorated box of tannerite near some long grass, retreated
03:46to a safe distance, and set off the explosives with a single shot.
03:52Blue powder burst into the air.
03:55Any joy the group felt, however, was short-lived.
03:59The explosion also ignited the long grass, and within seconds the fire was out of control.
04:07For what it's worth Dickey called for assistance immediately, and made no attempt to hide what
04:12he'd done.
04:15Firefighters attended but were unable to immediately contain the blaze.
04:19It spread, burning 190 square kilometres, or 73 square miles, of state and Forest Service
04:26land.
04:28Two weeks of intense efforts were required to bring it under control, with costs topping
04:34out at around $8 million.
04:38Two hundred people were forced to flee their homes, although fortunately no deaths were
04:43attributed directly to the fire.
04:46Dickey, who was hugely remorseful for his actions, escaped prison, though he was handed
04:52five years of probation and an order to make monthly restitution payments for 20 years.
05:00When the child for whom the party was held becomes a legal adult his father will still
05:05be paying off the cost of his gender-reveal party.
05:11Another incident on the 7th of September, 2019, also resulted in a great deal of destruction,
05:17but no deaths.
05:19An expectant couple in the city of Turkey, in Texas, hired a small crop-dusting plane
05:25to dump 350 gallons of pink water over a field for their gender-reveal party.
05:33No sooner had it done so, however, than the plane got into difficulties, rapidly losing
05:38speed.
05:39The aircraft ultimately stalled and crashed to the ground.
05:44One of the two people on board was injured, but both survived.
05:48The plane, however, was a write-off.
05:54Just one month later, however, on the 26th of October, 2019, a gender-reveal party in
06:00Knoxville, Iowa would result in a tragic fatality.
06:05The Cremier family wanted to reveal the gender of their expected child with a bang.
06:11After experimenting with different explosives they settled on a mix of gunpowder and colored
06:16baby powder, which they poured into a metal tube welded to a metal base.
06:23When ignited by a fuse they expected that the explosion would be funneled upwards by
06:28the tube, creating a spectacular colored cloud.
06:32However, before setting off the homemade device a cover was added and taped into place, creating
06:39what was essentially a pipe bomb.
06:43Rather than simply blasting the powder up into the air the whole thing exploded violently,
06:49sending shrapnel flying towards guests.
06:54Fifty-six-year-old Pamela Cremier, who was due to become a grandmother when the child
06:59was born, was hit and instantly killed.
07:06These incidents, whilst horrendous for those involved, seemingly only fueled the levels
07:11of interest in gender-reveal parties.
07:15The phenomenon was more popular than ever when, on the 5th of September, 2020, a small
07:20family group threw the most destructive gender-reveal party in history.
07:27El Dorado Ranch Park sits just outside the city of Yucaipa, with suburbs on one side
07:34and open countryside and mountains on the other.
07:38It's a popular spot with hikers, who make use of a network of unsignposted but maintained
07:43trails which crisscross the park.
07:47Unreleased CCTV footage from the morning when the disaster began shows a group comprised
07:52of adults and children arriving at the edge of the park and setting off a colored smoke
07:57bomb on the ground.
08:01Just minutes later flames engulf the area, spreading rapidly despite the family's efforts
08:06to bring them under control with water.
08:09Neither they nor the firefighters who were swiftly called to the scene were able to control
08:14the blaze, which spread easily through the bone-dry grass and foliage.
08:21The fire spread up into the hills and engulfed nearby communities.
08:27Over the course of the ensuing weekend hundreds of people had to be evacuated, and firefighters
08:32worked around the clock to try and contain the spread.
08:36It was an intense battle.
08:38The fire would not be fully contained until the 10th of October, and would not be fully
08:43extinguished until the 16th of November, more than a month after it first began.
08:51By that time almost 23,000 acres of land had been burned.
08:56Ten buildings had been razed to the ground, including four homes.
09:01Thousands of people had been forced to evacuate, a dozen people had been injured, and, worst
09:06of all, a USDA Forest Service firefighter was killed while working to contain the flames.
09:14His name was Charles Edward Morton.
09:17He was 39 years old and was known by friends and colleagues as a dedicated firefighter
09:23who loved his job.
09:28Investigational proceedings have not yet been brought against the family who started
09:32the fire.
09:33Indeed, the full cost of the damage is still being counted.
09:38The Eldorado Ranch Fire is, at present, the most destructive event to result from a gender-reveal
09:44party, but given the continued popularity of big, dramatic, social-media-oriented reveals
09:52there's every chance that it may not be the last.
09:58There's an epilogue to this anthology of disastrous gender-reveal parties.
10:04Jenna Karvunidis, the blogger and journalist who first popularized the idea, has publicly
10:09stated that she regrets doing so, and not just because of the wildfires and the freak
10:14accidents.
10:16Nowadays she just doesn't think that the gender of an unborn child is that important.
10:22Indeed, the child for whom she held her original party has grown up to show very little interest
10:28in conforming to gender stereotypes.
10:32Perhaps instead of ever more elaborate gender reveals, Karvunidis suggests, parents might
10:38celebrate something else... the choosing of a child's name, for example.
10:43And while they're at it they might wish to follow her original example.
10:49In many cases where a gender-reveal stunt has gone wrong a simple cake and a gathering
10:54with close friends and family might have been a much better choice.
11:24.