Gender-reveal smoke bomb lands fireworks biz in court
Edvard Pettersson
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (CN) — The distributor and the supplier of the two gender-reveal smoke bombs that started the El Dorado wildfire in Southern California four years ago must face a lawsuit by federal prosecutors that seeks to hold them liable for the $41 million in damages from the fire.
U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong on Friday denied Wholesale Fireworks' motion to dismiss the Justice Department's claims for negligence, for violations of California's Health and Safety Code, and for trespass by fire. The judge agreed, however, that the U.S. can't seek treble damages under California law for wrongful injuries to the trees because that remedy only applies to intentional harm.
"The court finds that the United States has adequately pleaded that Wholesale Fireworks’ defective labeling, in violation of state and federal law, allowed the El Dorado Fire to be set," the judge wrote.
Even though the company claims that the couple who set off the smoke bombs caused the fire, Frimpong said "there is ample case law holding that multiple entities can be held liable for the causation of the same injury."
The judge also rejected the argument by American Fireworks Warehouse, the in-house brand of Wholesale Fireworks, that it can't be sued in California. Frimpong agreed with the Justice Department that the company and Wholesale Fireworks entered into an exclusive distributorship relationship and that through this partnership, American Fireworks Warehouse purposefully directed itself to California.
"Even if [American Fireworks Warehouse] is not aware of who Wholesale Fireworks’s particular customers are, it still remains plausible that [American Fireworks Warehouse] gave Wholesale Fireworks consent to sell the gender reveal smoke bombs across the United States, including in California," she said.
Attorneys for the companies didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
The fire started on Sept. 5, 2020, at a gender-reveal photoshoot in El Dorado Ranch Park in San Bernardino County, when Angela and Refugio Jimenez set off two smoke bombs. The detonation of the smoke bombs — which didn't have a seal from the California State Fire Marshall, and as such were illegal in the state — ignited the dry grass, and the fire spread rapidly because of the bone-dry vegetation.
The cause of the wildfire, which ended up destroying about 22,744 acres of annual grasses, brush, and timber and cost the life of one firefighter, prompted an outcry at the time against over-the-top and irresponsible gender-reveal parties.
Local prosecutors charged the couple with involuntary manslaughter.
In February, Refugio Jimenez was sentenced to one year in county jail after he pleaded guilty to one felony count of involuntary manslaughter and two felony counts of recklessly causing fire to an inhabited structure. Angela Jimenez was sentenced to probation after she pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of recklessly causing a fire to another’s property.
They were also ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution to the victims.