Police: Gender Reveal Explosion Kills Iowa Woman

Very Pregnant Woman
Ian Waldie/Getty Images

An Iowa woman died Sunday after she was struck by debris from an explosion at a gender reveal party, authorities said.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement the explosion took place at a residence in Knoxville, Iowa, around 4 p.m. Saturday during a party to announce the gender of an expecting couple’s baby.

Investigators say an explosion during the announcement caused the death of a 56-year-old woman when a “flying piece of debris” struck the victim.

Deputies arrived at the home to find the dead 56-year-old, whose name has not yet been released.

This is not the first gender reveal party gone wrong to make the news.

In 2017, an off-duty patrol officer’s gender reveal stunt caused a wildfire which spread through 47,000 acres of brush.

The officer, Dennis Dickey, pleaded guilty in September 2018 to a misdemeanor for violating U.S. Forest Service regulations and received a sentence of five years’ probation as part of his plea deal.

Dickey also had to pay over $8 million in fines to the federal government and agreed to partake in a public service announcement explaining how the wildfire started.

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