Companies that sold gender-reveal fireworks which ignited California wildfire agree to $4m settlement

Nearly six years after a couple’s gender-reveal stunt sparked a deadly wildfire in southern California, the companies that sold the pyrotechnic device have agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement.

The Hubbard, Ohio-based Wholesale Fireworks Corp and its subsidiary American Fireworks Wholesale LLC have agreed to pay more than $4m, the US attorney’s office in the central district of California announced on Tuesday. A third company, the Miami-based Pink or Blue Gender Team Inc, agreed to pay $50,000.

The payments resolve civil claims brought on behalf of the US Forest Service in the wake of the so-called El Dorado fire, which incinerated 22,744 acres (9,204 hectares) and wiped out nine structures and more than a dozen outbuildings. Forest Service estimates of the damage totaled more than $41m.

Veteran Forest Service firefighter Charles Morton, 39, died 12 days into the blaze while fighting the fire that had spread to the San Bernardino national forest.

The settlement caps a legal saga that included a criminal case against the couple who inadvertently started the fire on 5 September 2020 in El Dorado Ranch park when they launched gender-reveal smoke bombs for a photo shoot that quickly ignited the dry grass.

Federal prosecutors said the devices should never have been sold in California, where they are illegal, and faulted the companies for not including adequate warnings that the smoke bombs could start a fire. The companies, prosecutors argued, were liable due to their role in designing, importing, distributing, marketing and advertising the smoke bombs, which allegedly also had an unsafe design.

Representatives from the three companies did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

In 2024, Refugio Jimenez Jr and Angela Renee Jimenez pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges for their role in starting the fire. Refugio Jimenez was sentenced to a year in jail and two years’ probation, while Angela Jimenez was sentenced to a year of probation, according to the San Bernardino county district attorney’s office. The couple was also ordered to pay nearly $1.8m in restitution.

Gender-reveal parties surged in popularity throughout the 2010s only to grow more extreme as cake cuttings and balloon drops were eclipsed by dramatic stunts involving rifles, airplanes and alligators. Gender-reveals gone wrong have sometimes ended with devastating consequences, including injuries, wide-scale property damage and death.