Gender Reveal Gone Wrong: Explosion Kills Iowa Woman

Being pregnant in 2019 seems to bring about another sort of responsibility. Social Media. If you scrolled your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feeds anytime in the last year it seems to be filled with pregnancy announcements, pictures of growing stomachs, and of course, the gender reveal. It might be a cake, a pinata, a powder-filled ball, or in extreme cases fireworks. One family in Iowa is grieving following their homemade gender reveal explosion went awry and killed a 56-year-old woman. 

In what was supposed to be a happy occasion, was marred by the death of 56-year-old Pamela Kreimeyer after a homemade gender reveal device went off more like a pipebomb than a plume of colored powder.

According to WHO-TV, "the Kreimeyer family was experimenting with explosives Friday and Saturday, as a way to make a gender reveal video to share with friends and family on social media."

The device that was made contained gunpowder that was placed in the bottom of a homemade stand that was welded to a metal base plate. Also inside the device was colored powder to signify the gender of the unborn child. All of this was held inside the device with tape, causing the device to explode outwards like a pipebomb rather than out of the top of the device, that was covered by the tape.

According to a Marion County Sheriff's Office press release, Kreimeyer was standing about 45 feet from the device, when she was struck in the head and died instantly. The piece of metal that hit her then continued another 144 yards and landed in a field.

In that same press release the Sheriff gave a statement about the incident:

"This family got together for what they thought was going to be a happy event with no intent for anyone to get hurt. 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 colored powder were involved. 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. My condolences go out to the family."

When my brother was having his kids, I liked his idea of keeping the gender close to the vest. They didn't do the gender reveal, you found out when the kids were born. It made meeting my nieces and nephews just that more special.