Man killed in explosion at baby gender reveal party

GAINES TOWNSHIP, Mich. - A 26-year-old Michigan man was killed in an explosion that occurred during a baby shower.

A small cannon device that was fired in the backyard of a Gaines Township home by the homeowner blew up, spraying metal shrapnel that struck an unidentified Hartland man who was standing nearby.

Three parked cars and the garage where the baby shower was being held were also struck by shrapnel.

Telephone calls Sunday to Gaines Township authorities for additional information weren't immediately returned.

In recent years, some gender-reveal events -- where devices eject confetti, balloons or other colored objects to announce a soon-to-be-born child's sex -- have taken a dangerous turn.

In September, a couple's plan to reveal their baby's gender with blue or pink smoke sparked a wildfire that burned thousands of acres in Southern California. And in 2019, a homemade explosive used to reveal a baby's gender killed 56-year-old Pamela Kreimeyer in Knoxville, Iowa. The device was meant to spray powder but instead blew up like a pipe bomb.