Gender reveal party sparks B.C. brushfire

A group out for a swim in B.C. Sunday suddenly found themselves fighting a brush fire caused by a gender reveal party.

Rob Iezzi, who has a house at Mt. Baldy, was at nearby Jolly Lake mid-afternoon when he was called into action.

"We were sitting over there and some lady pulled up on a quad screaming that there was a fire just down the road," he told CTV News.

The group hopped on their ATVs and headed to the scene where they saw the smoke and flames.

"We had sticks, a couple of us, and shovels. Other people started showing up with jugs of water and shovels and everything else," he said.

"It was a group effort."

The cause of the fire, Iezzi was told, was tannerite – a "binary exploding target" which is currently banned in almost all of B.C. under restrictions meant to prevent wildfires. When shot with a rifle, for example, the tannerite explodes and creates a cloud of smoke. Online ads touting the product's use at gender reveal parties explain it can be ordered to create an explosion in either pink or blue.

"There was a little evidence, a little bit of pink dust everywhere. It's definitely a girl," Iezzi said.

Heading into the long weekend, the fire danger rating in the Okanagan ranged from high to extreme. Province-wide, the wildfire season has been off to an early and devastating start.

In 2021, Iezzi recalls, the resort community of Mt. Baldy was ordered to evacuate due to fire danger and residents are watching conditions this year anxiously.

"Everybody's on edge up here," he said, describing the decision to have this type of gender reveal party in this location at this time as "not the smartest thing to be doing in the woods, especially."

"We're happy it didn't spread," he added.

There have been 619 wildfires in B.C this year, 305 of which have been determined to be human-caused, according to BC Wildfire Service statistics.

"The most important thing about human-caused wildfires is that they are preventable. The easiest way to fight a wildfire is to prevent it from starting," the BCWS website says.

If someone is found to have caused a wildfire due to illegal activities, they can be fined or held liable for firefighting costs. Failing to comply with restrictions on burning comes with a penalty of $1,150, for example.