New Hampshire Union-Leader: “It’s a boy! An explosion that rattled homes within a 20-mile radius Tuesday night is being blamed on a gender reveal celebration at a Kingston quarry that police say involved more than a pound of Tannerite and blue chalk. Many residents in communities across southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts reported hearing the explosion just after 7 p.m. No injuries were reported in the quarry at Torromeo Industries on Dorre Road. Kingston Police Chief Donald Briggs Jr. said police are looking for those involved.”

“‘Obviously, depending on the amount (of explosives) they were using, it could be extremely dangerous,’ Briggs said Wednesday. Gender reveal party accidents – some deadly – have made headlines as they’ve grown in popularity among expectant parents over the past decade. Last year, a device from a gender reveal celebration sparked a massive wildfire in California that resulted in a firefighter’s death. In February, a New York man died after the device he was creating to reveal the gender of his baby exploded. His brother also was hurt. His death came two weeks after a man attending a gender reveal party in Michigan was killed when he was hit by shrapnel from a cannon. Two pilots died in March when their plane crashed into the Caribbean Sea during a stunt they were performing for a gender reveal. In Kingston, police found a container filled with chalk and Tannerite at the quarry. Blue powder covered the ground. Tannerite is a combination explosive used to make homemade targets. It is sold as two separate components that must be mixed by the user.”