Three companies, including a smoke bomb designer and importer, have agreed to pay more than $4 million to the United States, six years after a deadly wildfire sparked during a gender reveal party on an extremely warm weekend in San Bernardino County, officials said Tuesday.
The El Dorado Fire ignited when a pyrotechnic smoke device was set off in a field during the party in El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa on Sept. 5, 2020. It spread to the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area of the San Bernardino National Forest, scorching 22,744 acres, damaging or destroying two dozen structures and killing a firefighter, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
In September 2023, the U.S. Forest Service filed a lawsuit against Ohio-based Wholesale Fireworks Corp., its subsidiary American Fireworks Wholesale LLC and Florida-based Pink or Blue Gender Team Inc., alleging they were liable because the smoke bomb was “distributed, marketed, and advertised” by them, as well as designed and imported by Wholesale and AFW.
“The defendants further allegedly 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,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release. “These smoke bombs should never have been sold into California, where they are illegal.”
The office said Wholesale and AFW agreed to pay $4 million, and Pink or Blue agreed to pay $50,000 to recover Forest Service costs and damages to federal land.
The couple who staged the gender reveal pleaded guilty to criminal charges and were ordered to pay nearly $1,800,000 in restitution.
At least four homes have been destroyed and thousands of people evacuated in San Bernardino County where El Dorado Fire has torched more than 12,000 acres since Saturday. The thick smoke is causing problems for many. Gordon Tokumatsu reports Sept. 10, 2020.
The blaze injured 13 other people and forced the evacuations of hundreds of residents in small communities in the San Bernardino National Forest area.
Flames blackened nearly 36 square miles of land in San Bernardino and Riverside counties before the blaze was contained on Nov. 16, 2020.
The fire was one of thousands during a record-breaking wildfire season in California that charred more than 4% of the state while destroying nearly 10,500 buildings and killing 33 people.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.