A Woman Has Died At A Gender Reveal Party After A Couple Used Explosives For The Announcement

A woman in Knoxville, Iowa died at a gender reveal party this weekend when she was struck by debris from an explosion during the celebration. According to The Cut, tannerite is a legal explosive commonly used for gender reveals in America.

The incident was reported by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office this weekend after police released a statement. They state that the office received a 911 call at 4pm on Saturday reporting a 56-year-old woman named Pamela Kreimeyer had been ‘seriously injured’ in an explosion. When officers arrived at the scene, she was pronounced dead.

The sherriff’s investigation concluded that she was struck by flying debris after the gender reveal announcement created an explosion. They said the family were experimenting with different types of explosives in an attempt to record a gender reveal that would go viral on social media.

By placing gunpowder in the bottom of a homemade stand that was welded to a metal base plate, Kreimeyer and give other family members inadvertently created a 'pipe bomb' that exploded. Kreimeyer was 45 feet away when she was hit by metal that flew off the stand and was killed instantly, according to the sherriff's office. The projectile then continued another 144 yards before landing in a field.

'Instead of the gunpowder shooting the powder out the top of the stand, the stand exploded sending metal pieces flying,' the sheriff's office said. 'This family got together for what they thought was going to be a happy event with no intent for anyone to get hurt. This is a reminder that anytime someone mixes these things there is a high potential for serious injury or death; please do not take these unnecessary risks.'

This is the second catastrophic event to occur following a gender reveal announcement in the US, with one causing 47,000-acre wildfire last year. During that announcement, in Tucson, Arizona, a man shot a target meant to reveal the baby’s gender but the target – which contained tannerite – burst into flames and started a fire that ultimately caused $8million in damage.

In the US, gender reveal parties have become increasingly more lavish and stunt-filled. However, it was reported earlier this month that the woman who invented them has since come to regret starting the trend. ‘I feel like the guy who invented gunpowder,’ Jenna Myers Karvunidis told The Guardian.

Karvunidis is said to have begun the trend in 2008 when she blogged about her daughters gender-reveal party – which was simply revealed in the form of blue or pink cake. Her story was picked up by a magazine and spread through Midwest America and beyond. ‘When you announce your son with a gunshot, or by wrestling an alligator, I think, how far are we going to take this?’ she said a decade later.

She now also finds flaws in the obsession around gender that these parties perpetuate, having evolved in her own opinions after her daughter Biance - the world's first baby to receive a gender reveal - has educated her in gender politics. 'Bianca tells me there are more than two genders and many sexualities. I hadn’t considered all this before,' she said.

Oh the delicious irony. Perhaps with generations to come rejecting gender norms more and more, gender reveal parties will be a thing of that past. Clearly, with the news of this weekend, it's more necessary now than ever before.

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