Man charged after 80lbs of explosives set off at gender reveal party

A man has been charged in connection with a New Hampshire gender revealparty which caused a huge explosion that neighbours compared to an earthquake.

Anthony Spinelli of Kingston has been charged with disorderly conduct, police said on Monday, citing the fact that the blast “caused public alarm”. Spinelli contacted police himself and is cooperating.

The gender reveal bash, which took place on April 20 in 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, with some even reporting property damage.

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

Authorities said around 80lb of an explosive called Tannerite was the source of the explosion. It is normally sold over the counter as a target for firearms practice.

“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,” another neighbor on the road said.

Plaistow resident Maggie Jasmin, who lives two miles from the quarry, told the Union Leader her tap water turned brown in the wake of the explosion.

Police said there were no injuries and that the family chose the quarry as they believed it to be safest place to set up.

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.

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