Gender reveal party triggers earthquake fears after family use 80lbs of explosives

A gender reveal party prompted a huge explosion that neighbors compared to an earthquake, according to police.

The expectant family from Kingston, a town not far from the Massachusetts border in New Hampshire, set off such a blast that it could be heard across the state line.

Kingston Police responded to reports of the loud explosion on Tuesday evening and found people who were holding a gender reveal party at Torromeo quarry where they were found with explosives.

“We heard this God-awful blast,” Sara Taglieri, who lives in a home that abuts the quarry, told the NBC Boston. “It knocked pictures off our walls … I’m all up for silliness and what not, but that was extreme.”

“It was earth-shaking,” said another neighbor on the road said.

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“It cracked foundations of our neighbors’ [homes],” Matt Taglieri said. “I don’t know how that’s right.”

The source of the blast was 80lbs (36 kilograms) of Tannerite, police said.

The explosive is usually sold over the counter as a target for firearms practice. Police said that the family thought the quarry would be the safest spot to light the explosive.

No injuries were reported, police said.

The person who bought and detonated the explosives has turned himself into police. He was not identified.

Police said that they had seen a video of the reveal and confirmed the child was a boy, NBC Los Angeles reported. An investigation is ongoing and they will make a determination on charges.

The ways expectant parents announce the sex of their unborn infants have become more elaborate and hazardous in recent years.

In April 2017, another party caused $8 million of damage to 47,000 acres of forest in Arizona when the father-to-be shot at a target full of blue-coloured explosive.

In 2020, a pyrotechnic device used for a gender reveal party caused a fire that damaged more than 7,000 acres of land in California.

Most recently, in March, two pilots were killed when their plane crashed into the waters off Cancun during a gender reveal stunt.