The Waukee Fire and Police Departments have confirmed they were called out Sunday at 5:34 p.m. to an address in rural Dallas County on the report of an explosion that was part of a gender reveal announcement.
Waukee Fire Captain Tomme Tysdal says the explosion came from a shell shot out of a rifle. “The device that was purchased as actually a gender reveal kit. So it has the colored power in it and when it is shot with a gun — it has a cloud of whatever color it was,” Tysdal explains.
He says there were no injuries or damage on the property. “It went exactly as it was designed to be used, we were notified of an explosion, not knowing the origin,” Tysdal says He says the property is in an unincorporated area of Dallas County just outside the city limits of Waukee, which made the device legal to use.
Tysdal says the people who conducted the reveal took the right steps — it was just the noise the generated the call. “I think it was a little bit louder than they had anticipated. They had taken precautions and talked to a couple of the neighbors ahead of time and let them know when was going … so they took the time to talk to their neighbors,” according to Tysdal. “They were very apologetic when we arrived. I think they just underestimated how loud it was going to be.”
He says it is important with any explosive type devices that you be very careful. “And any time you are using any commercially made product — using it to manufacturer’s recommendations is the key,” Tysdal says. He says they haven’t had any other calls about this type of thing and says he wasn’t even aware that there were commercially sold devices like this available.
The call got a little more attention because of a fatal gender reveal Saturday in Marion County. The sheriff says a homemade device exploded at a residence in rural Knoxville and a piece of flying debris hit 56-year-old Pamela Kreimeyer. Kreimeyer was a mother and grandmother gathered with other family members to view the reveal and died after being hit.