A gender reveal party for a soon-to-be-born baby went tragically wrong when a homemade device meant to discharge coloured powder instead exploded like a pipe bomb, killing a relative.
Pamela Kreimeyer died instantly when debris struck her head on Saturday during the party in Iowa. The 56-year-old was 45 feet from the device when it exploded, with debris flying a further 432ft and landing in a nearby field.
A spokesman for the Marion County Sheriff’s office said family members had been experimenting with explosives in the hope of posting a colourful announcement on social media.
They welded a metal cylinder to a stand and packed it with gunpowder that they assumed would send the coloured powder into the air. But authorities say the tape covering the top of the cylinder instead caused it to detonate like a pipe bomb.
“This family got together for what they thought was going to be a happy event with no intent for anyone to get hurt,” Sheriff Jason Sandholdt said in a statement.
“What ended up happening was that Pamela Kreimeyer, a wife, mother and grandmother, was killed by a piece of metal where a metal stand gunpowder and coloured powder were involved. This is a reminder that anytime someone mixes these things there is a high potential for serious injury or death.”
A similar incident caused a major wildfire in Arizona in 2017 , when an off-duty border patrol agent accidentally set off an enormous blaze.
The fire forced about 200 people out of their homes and cost an estimated $8 million in damage and firefighting expenses. The agent, Dennis Dickey, fired a rifle at a homemade target that exploded, sending a blue substance into the air. The explosion started a grassfire that spread quickly.
Dickey pleaded guilty in September 2018 to a federal misdemeanour charge of starting a fire without a permit. He was sentenced the following month to five years of probation and was ordered to make an initial payment of $100,000 in restitution and monthly payments of $500.