{"id":1666,"date":"2026-06-09T17:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T17:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1666"},"modified":"2026-06-09T17:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T17:40:11","slug":"a-gender-reveal-mishap-sparked-a-deadly-california-wildfire-whos-being-held-accountable-is-unusual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1666","title":{"rendered":"A gender reveal mishap sparked a deadly California wildfire. Who\u2019s being held accountable is unusual"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/b>he expectant couple, along with several children and loved ones, walked with anticipation into the grass at the edge of the El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, California \u2013 where wild grasses turn golden in the fall, making a scenic backdrop \u2013 to reveal their baby\u2019s gender.<\/p>

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Another person lit a pyrotechnic device that generates an explosion of smoke in the color of blue for a boy or pink for a girl, as seen in surveillance video. But what was meant to be a celebratory moment went terribly wrong just moments later when a fire was ignited, and the family frantically grabbed water bottles to put out the growing flames.<\/p>\n

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That fire continued for over two months until November 2020, scorching nearly 23,000 acres and killing one beloved firefighter who was battling the blaze. The couple pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with causing the fire and the death of firefighter Charles Morton, prosecutors said in 2024.<\/p>\n

The couple aren\u2019t the only ones facing consequences. The saga concluded last week when three companies involved in designing, importing and marketing the smoke bomb agreed to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the government in 2023. They agreed to pay more than $4 million for US Forest Service costs for fighting the fire and the damage it caused to federal land.<\/p>\n

The case is unusual compared to the slew of lawsuits over the past decade against utility companies for negligence that caused destructive and deadly wildfires, according to legal and environmental experts CNN spoke with. It\u2019s much less common for manufacturers to face such lawsuits because their role is more indirect and requires consumers, like the couple, to use the product in conditions that would lead to a wildfire, the experts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike utility companies, who can sometimes be sued for being negligent \u2013 or in a state like California, strictly liable \u2013 when they cause a wildfire, a business that sells a good can always argue that it doesn\u2019t have a duty to prevent third parties from using their product unreasonably, particularly after they are sold,\u201d said Adam Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s standard practice for utility companies to be sued for their role in starting wildfires, the experts said. Pacific Gas & Electric was forced to pay billions of dollars in damages after its faulty electric transmission line was the determined cause of the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history. More recently, the devastating Eaton Fire in Altadena last year led to a host of lawsuits against Southern California Edison by fire victims, insurance companies and governments.<\/p>

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Why the three companies are being held liable<\/h2>\n

A key aspect of the settlement was cut-and-dry. The two smoke bombs used in the gender reveal party should have never been sold from out of state into California, where they are illegal, federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Wholesale Fireworks Corp., the smoke bomb designer and importer, and its subsidiary, American Fireworks Warehouse LLC, agreed to pay $4 million to settle claims for their role in designing, importing, distributing, marketing and advertising the smoke bomb. Another company, Pink or Blue Gender Team Inc., agreed to pay $50,000 for distributing, marketing and advertising the device, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

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The companies \u201callegedly failed to safely design and label the smoke bombs and failed to properly warn customers about the fire risk of the smoke bombs, despite being aware of their dangers,\u201d prosecutors said.<\/p>

\n<\/div>\n

The El Dorado Fire \u201chad a tremendous impact on the community of San Bernardino,\u201d said San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson when the couple was charged in July 2021. He added at least six agencies \u201cwere involved in containing, extinguishing and investigating\u201d the deadly blaze.<\/p>\n

In February 2024, Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the death of the firefighter, as well as recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure, and was sentenced to two years felony probation, a year in county jail and community service, prosecutors said. His wife, Angelina Renee Jimenez, pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors of recklessly causing fire to property of another and was sentenced to one year of summary probation and community service, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

The couple was ordered to pay over $1.7 million in restitution to the victims, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

CNN reached out to the attorneys for the couple but did not hear back.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s mishap wasn\u2019t the first time a gender reveal party caused a destructive wildfire, but it stands out because manufacturers involved in previous incidents were not held liable.<\/p>\n

Another one in Arizona sparked a wildfire that burned nearly 47,000 acres in 2017 and caused more than $8 million in damage. The expectant father, who shot a makeshift target that exploded into a blue cloud, igniting the surrounding brush, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of US Forest Service regulations and was ordered to pay restitution for the damages. No manufacturers were sued in that case.<\/p>\n

In the El Dorado gender reveal case, as well as most of the wildfire settlements in California and other parts of the country, victims and government entities have mainly used tort law to file civil lawsuits and seek restitution from those responsible for causing the blaze, according to Michael Wara, a lawyer and senior research scholar focused on climate and energy policy at Stanford University.<\/p>

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In California specifically, a doctrine called inverse condemnation can be used to hold utility companies liable when their services for public use cause a fire, regardless of whether or not they did so negligently, Wara said.<\/p>\n

Negligence is the most common claim pursued under tort law, but others can allege wrongdoing or recklessness, Wara said. Many of the early tort law cases involved railroads and trains when they were powered by coal and wood, causing sparks that would often start damaging fires, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of those instances developed a body of law that is basic negligence law. You have to take reasonable care to prevent your actions from causing harm to others and related to that is a body of law around product defects,\u201d Wara said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you sell something to someone, it can\u2019t have the effect of causing harm in some way that\u2019s non-obvious to the person buying them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Why this case stands out<\/h2>\n