Explosion at Gender Reveal Party Leaves Woman Dead in Iowa

A woman in Iowa has died after a gender reveal party ended in an explosion.

A 56-year-old woman was found dead at the scene in Knoxville, Iowa, after police received a call about an injury following an explosion, according to TV station KDVR. The woman's name has not been released by police.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office received a call on Saturday at 4:03 p.m., according to the Journal-Express in Iowa. They arrived to find the woman died after being struck by a flying piece of debris.

Investigators suggested the theme of the party led directly to the disaster. An investigation found "a gender reveal announcement resulted in the explosion."

It's unclear what led to an explosion with the use of such deadly force, but antics at such reveal parties have become increasingly dangerous (and not just for reinforcing heteronormative assumptions on gender).

Last year a Border Patrol agent accidentally started a wildfire that destroyed 47,000 acres in Arizona. The same year, fireworks rocketed into a crowd of spectators anxious to see if the burst of flame inches from their face would be blue or pink (it was pink).

It's unclear if the woman killed at the Iowa gender-reveal party was related to the unborn child. The sex of the fetus has also ironically not been publicly revealed.