Companies that sold gender-reveal fireworks which ignited California wildfire agree to $4m settlement

Nearly six years after a couple’s gender-reveal stunt sparked a deadly wildfire in southern California , the companies that sold the pyrotechnic device have agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement. The Hubbard, Ohio-based Wholesale Fireworks Corp and its subsidiary American Fireworks Wholesale LLC have agreed to pay more than $4m, the US attorney’s office in the central district of California announced on Tuesday. A third company, the Miami-based Pink or Blue Gender Team Inc, agreed to pay $50,000. The payments resolve civil claims brought on behalf of the US Forest Service in the wake of the so-called El Dorado fire, which incinerated 22,744 acres (9,204 hectares) and wiped out nine structures and more than a dozen outbuildings. Forest Service estimates of the damage totaled more than $41m. Veteran Forest Service firefighter Charles Morton, 39, died 12 days into the blaze while fighting the fire that had spread to the San Bernardino national forest. The settlement caps a legal saga that included a criminal case against the couple who inadvertently started the fire on 5 September 2020 in El Dorado Ranch park when they launched gender-reveal smoke bombs for a photo shoot that quickly ignited the dry grass. Federal prosecutors said the devices should never have been sold in California, where they are illegal, and faulted the companies for not including adequate warnings that the smoke bombs could start a fire. …