Woman killed in gender reveal explosion was 45 feet away from device, died instantly

[Coventina]

DES MOINES, Iowa – Authorities on Monday released the name of a woman killed after she was struck by debris during a gender reveal announcement Saturday in Iowa.

The woman was identified as Pamela Kreimeyer, 56, in a news release Monday from the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Jason Sandholdt's office said an investigation showed that family members working on ways to make a fun announcement of a child's gender for social media inadvertently created a pipe bomb.

"Members of the Kreimeyer family were experimenting with different types of explosive material on Friday and Saturday," the news release said. Six people, including Kreimeyer and the expectant mother, gathered Saturday and put gunpowder inside a homemade stand that was welded to a metal base.

They put a piece of wood on top of the gunpowder and some colored powder on top of that. The stand had a hole drilled in the side for a fuse.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/28/pamela-kreimeyer-woman-killed-gender-reveal-explosion-identified/2486673001/

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This is a stupid fad that needs to die NOW!!!

[LaurenOlimina]

1. I've never been clear on this...

Was it a boy or a girl?

[hlthe2b]

6. well, whichever is going to live in a family with some REALLY BAD Karma...

[LaurenOlimina]

9. And a dad who likes to play with black powder.

[sdfernando]

30. A boy before the explosion. /nt

[phleshdef]

2. Jesus. Just get a balloon with colored confetti inside and call it a day.

[rusty fender]

3. Agree,

but there are non lethal ways to reveal gender, or should I say, non explosive ways

[Sneederbunk]

4. Nothing says fun like a pipe bomb.

[pnwest]

14. Sher, it's awl fun n games til

sumbody gits blowed up.

[hlthe2b]

5. Part of scurge of our celebrity culture worship with posting everything onlline via selfies &video.

Those who think they need to document every single facet of their lives while one-upping everyone else while doing so.

Want to have a party to celebrate the news on your baby's gender? Fine. But why all this ridiculous nonsense? Bake a pink and a blue cake, open the envelope in front of everyone and then have the "right" cake brought out.

I know I sound somewhat contemptuous (and I guess I am). The whole phenomenon is just so OTT to me.

[Coventina]

33. Agree completely. Guess what? Nobody cares about the gender of your spawn.

Except a very few, close family members.

[LisaL]

37. Of whom these people now killed one.

Using their gender reveal pipe bomb.

[Yonnie3]

7. There are enough dangerous things around.

People should be able to announce the type of genitals the baby will have without killing people and starting forest fires.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[LisaM]

11. Yes, I was just reading about the forest fire incident last year.

Peoples' fascination with explosions is really absurd to me.

[MineralMan]

8. Too sad! Blowing things up is inherently dangerous.

Amateurs playing with explosives often die.

[KG]

10. like the yay-hoo down my street, trying to collect powder out of a flare

he's missing a few fingers now.

[exboyfil]

12. Note - Not Florida

but Iowa. Boy am I ashamed.

[drray23]

13. Right there is where they went wrong.

"Members of the Kreimeyer family were experimenting with different types of explosive material on Friday and Saturday,

Why the heck do people think it's a good idea to screw around with explosives?

[LiberalFighter]

15. Dumbasses

1) They should not had try to create something that it is not intended. Using gunpowder intended for loading firearm cartridges.

2) This blue or pink confetti or powder is bullshit. Just announce the gender without it. Or better yet, let everyone wait until the baby is born for everyone to find out. And wrap it in pink or blue.

[edbermac]

16. You think some people would learn. This guy started a wildfire.

It's a perfect storm of thoughtlessness: on a hot Arizona day a man fires a shot into a target loaded with explosives set among dry grasses and mesquite trees. The result was the 45,000 acre Sawmill Fire that took the efforts of nearly 800 firefighters to put out.

Now the U.S. Forest Service has released video of that ridiculously dumb moment, so that we might all better recognize just how mundane the moments before disaster strikes can look. And because the law requires they provide it to local media upon request.

The brief video shows the fateful moment at a "gender reveal" party hosted by off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent Dennis Dickey April 23, 2017 near Green Valley, Arizona. Such parties have become a bizarre trend recently in which colored explosives are sometimes used to reveal a baby's sex. But when a single shot explodes Dickey's target, the burst of blue is very quickly replaced by orange flames that immediately begin to consume the grassland and start spreading fast.

A few individuals in the video have been blacked out in the clip, which was obtained from the Forest Service by the Arizona Daily Star via a Freedom of Information Act request. As the fire spreads, a voice can be heard shouting to the group to "start packing up!"

For his part, Dickey reported the fire and his role in starting it to authorities. In September, he entered a plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to serve five years probation, record a public service announcement and eventually pay $8 million in restitution. However, a federal court reduced the total penalty to be paid to $200,000 at a sentencing hearing in October.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2018/11/27/see-the-remarkably-stupid-moment-arizonas-sawmill-fire-was-started-at-a-gender-reveal-party/#7b48ed26635a

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Nothing about whether charges will be brought

Just "condolences to the family". Is that because she was part of the group that made the lethal weapon?

[vercetti2021]

18. And to think they're breeding

Yeah I know in the light of tragedy but when you fuck with explosives this is kind of what happens. I should know that's why I don't do anymore.

[shanti]

19. And was the expected baby's paternal grandmother

What a tragedy for all

[KY_EnviroGuy]

31. And, as part of the hangover.....

the baby will have this tragedy to reflect on and mourn all its life.........

[stopdiggin]

20. we have two dumb things here

but obviously not of equal depth and breadth in their dumbness. 1) gender reveal is STUPID (self-adsorbed, culturally meaningless, and BORING). Stop it. You're just annoying. And 2) farting around with homemade explosive devices is CRIMINALLY DUMB! And DANGEROUS. Guys .. stop playing with your pee-pee in public. Or actually .. we would rather that you DID play with your pee-pee in public .. and our wives and children would all be that much safer (and better entertained).

[sarisataka]

21. That had to be a shit-ton of powder

To spread shrapnel over 100 yards.

We just told everyone we were having girls, except for the youngest where a week before the due date the doctor looked at the ultrasound and said "Oops, we made a mistake". That required some clothing returns

[Initech]

22. Seriously fuck gender reveal parties.

[regnaD kciN]

28. My serious wish...

...is that everyone who holds one of these ridiculous farces winds up with a kid who eventually comes out as trans, or at least gender-fluid.

[tandem5]

23. Pipe bomb reveal? What's next -- A blue mushroom cloud?

"Bad news hun, nuclear winter is upon us, but on the bright side, it's a boy!"

[TeamPooka]

24. In my day "giving birth" was the gender reveal party.

[eissa]

32. That's the route we chose even though

Last edited Tue Oct 29, 2019, 10:46 AM - Edit history (1)

we could have been informed of our children's gender early. We both wanted to hear the announcement during delivery, and we loved it each time.

[Phentex]

45. I knew I was having a girl with my first one...

except it was news to me when he turned out to be a boy. We didn't find out with either of our children but I thought I could just tell. I was right about the second one.

[Ms. Toad]

25. The gender reveal will happen only when the child is old enough to disclose their gender

Having a penis or a Y chromosome does not necessrily make you a boy.

Stop this toxic crap that is apparently not only emotionally toxic, but also potentially dangerous.

[regnaD kciN]

29. BINGO!!!

[Polybius]

42. Question:

If the baby has a penis, is it now not ok to say it's a boy? If someone asks if your 1 year-old is a boy or a girl, is it an offensive question? Is the correct answer "the child's gender is not known until the child is old enough to disclose their gender"?

[Ms. Toad]

43. It's not a bad idea to leave things open.

Is there a reason you feel the need to label your child? Why not use their name and gender neutral pronouns (they/them/their - or ze/zim/zir)?

That option aside, there is a significant difference between not making life overly complicated by using the presumed gender - and teh current trend of focusing an entire party on sharing thie child's body parts with the world as if the gender those body parts are attached to are the most important thing about the child. That's what is toxic.

I have known children as young as 3 who were very clear that their gender did not match their sex assigned at birth. One of those children is now 12, and has recently started on hormone blockers so he can go through puberty without the irreversible changes that the development of secondary sex characteristics brings.

[Flaleftist]

26. 6 adults?

6 adults got together and thought stuffing a pipe with black powder, sealing it and then igniting it was a good idea? I mean I could see one stupid drunk person doing this, but no one present realized what they were doing? wow

[RhodeIslandOne]

50. There's an acronym for Iowa that fits here

I won’t say it.

[Demovictory9]

27. they were going for this.. tubes that send out colored smoke

I would think people would buy them... rather than making their own

[Dem2theMax]

34. Poor kid. Having to grow up with this story,

and constantly being reminded that you are part of a Darwin Award winning family.

[dchill]

35. I would have thought that a few bubble wands...

... would have been more fun. Kids love 'em, too!

[LisaL]

36. Or get a big cake with either blue or pink inside.

Who doesn't like cake? And nobody dies.

[dchill]

40. Cake AND bubbles! All right!

[Phentex]

44. The first time I heard of gender reveal was...

through seeing someone use a cake for it. I thought it was the most bizarre thing ever. A party for this? (NOT a baby shower, a separate gender reveal party). Now in the days of viral video, everything has to be bigger and grander.

[hlthe2b]

38. Nowhere have I seen it addressed whether or not there were any laws broken...

I'm not looking for a compounded tragedy, obviously, but I do wonder why none of the media reports have even mentioned if this is/was an issue. ???

[central scrutinizer]

39. Am I the only one

Who is learning that "gender reveal" is a thing from this post? I've never heard of this before!

[Coventina]

41. Consider yourself lucky that you haven't had one inflicted on you.

They are another excuse for parents to be to monopolize your time and attention.

[cbdo2007]

46. What fad needs to die? Gender reveal parties or making pipe bombs??

You do realize 99.99% of gender reveal parties are not made with homemade explosives.

[Coventina]

47. Dangerous gender reveal parties are criminal.

Run of the mill ones are stupid and annoying.

[Hortensis]

48. So sad. Why do these tragedies bring out so much meanness, tho?

Psychologists say conservatives and liberals are a lot more alike than different. I hate when our bad overlap is demonstrated beyond denial.

On the positive side, when I read about someone heroically saving another, I never wonder if that person is liberal or conservative. I know both would be just as likely.

[RhodeIslandOne]

49. The vast majority of gender reveal parties don't involve an unbranched family tree