A father-to-be was killed Sunday while attempting to assemble a device for a gender reveal party in New York, according to police.
The device exploded right before noon as Christopher Pekny, 28, was assembling it, the Associated Press reported. Pekny’s brother Micael was injured in the blast as well, according to the outlet.
An expecting father was killed while building an explosion device for a gender reveal party in New York.
Two weeks ago, another man in Michigan was killed by a gender reveal canon. In 2020, a gender reveal explosion caused a wildfire and burned thousands of acres in California. pic.twitter.com/t4zBWEzljM
— AJ+ (@ajplus) February 22, 2021
It’s unclear exactly what kind of device Pekny was assembling at the time of his death. (RELATED: Baby Shower Explosion Kills Michigan Man)
A 26-year-old man from Michigan was killed at the beginning of February after a small cannon used at a baby shower exploded. Shrapnel from the explosion also hit three parked cars and the garage where the party was being held, as previously reported.
Lt. Liz Rich of the Michigan State Police told ABC 12 that the cannon was “similar to a signal cannon” and had been previously used.
“If there aren’t regular inspections on a device like this, the cast material can wear away,” Rich said.
Gender reveals and other celebrations have appeared to become dangerous in the last years. A gender reveal party sparked a wildfire back in September of 2020.
“There’s this huge pressure to publicize these once-private moments,” Carly Gieseler, an associate professor at the City University of New York’s York College who has studied the rise of gender-reveal parties, told the Associated Press. “You get that outside validation that what you did was unique, that it was extra special. It drives celebrations to the extreme because you’re trying to do the thing that no one’s done before.”