Some parents like to wait until the day their baby is born to find out if they are having a boy or a girl. Other parents want to find out ahead of time at the doctor’s office. Yet, other parents want to have a huge celebration when they find out their baby’s gender. These gender reveal parties started out simple enough, but lately, they have ended in tragedy.

There are many safe yet exciting ways to announce whether you’re having a boy or a girl at a gender reveal party. For example, new parents can open a box full of balloons, pink for a girl or blue for a boy. They could also cut into a cake to reveal pink or blue cake on the inside.

Unfortunately, some parents have come up with more spectacular ways to share the news of their baby’s gender such as the use of colorful smoke and explosive devices. If everything goes as it should, it would be quite an unforgettable gender reveal, but that doesn’t always happen.

One gender reveal party gone wrong ended up starting a wild fire in California. Another gender reveal party explosion killed a 26-year-old guest. More recently, a father-to-be in New York was killed by a gender reveal explosive before the party even happened.

Christopher Pekny had a wild streak according to his older brother, Peter Pekny Jr., but he also shared that his younger brother “was really settling down.” Christopher had gotten engaged and found out that he was going to be a dad. He was excited by the news.

Christopher and his finacee, Jennifer Edwards, decided to have a gender reveal party. In preparation for the party, Christopher and his brother Michael Pekny were preparing an explosive device that would reveal the baby’s gender. Unfortunately, the device did not work as planned. Christopher died, and Michael suffered from a leg injury that was so severe he had to go to the hospital for emergency surgery. Watch the video below for more about this tragic event.

 

According to State Police Trooper Steven Nevel, the explosion was an unfortunate accident. He said that the explosive device “was not being built or made for malicious purposes.”

Peter feels really bad for his brother Michael who wasn’t just Christopher’s brother but also his best friend. He said the two brothers were “one entity” and did everything together.

Have you ever been to a gender reveal party? If so, how was the baby’s gender revealed?