New Hampshire: Gender reveal party's 80 pounds of explosives sets off earthquake reports

Party goers in New Hampshire detonated an estimated 80 pounds of explosives at a gender reveal get-together, shaking neighbouring towns and setting off earthquake reports. Residents complained that the loud blast was heard from across the state line, Police in Kingston said Thursday, in a statement. The town located near the Massachusetts border dialled emergency 911 after what it described, an unusually loud “god-awful explosion” rocked their homes. It came from the direction of Torromeo quarry, residents told the police, according to the department’s release. Kingston police, in a statement, later revealed that 80 pounds (36 kilograms) of explosions used for firearms practice were detonated at a gender reveal party at Tannerite. 

When the police arrived, the party gatherers admitted to causing the explosion, which reportedly frightened the neighbours, shook and cracked many homes’ walls, and left several others who heard the noise, devastated. A member told the detective that they had detonated colourful explosives but had chosen the quarry so as to avoid inconvenience to others, adding that it was a “safe location” to do an explosion. But the blast turned out to be so intense, according to local NBC10, that tremors were felt for miles and there were reports about the earthquake. A neighbour condemned the explosion calling it  absolutely “over the top, ridiculous.” The whole neighbourhood was covered with chalk, confetti and blue or pink powder. There was no report of any injuries from the explosion.

“We are all about celebrating happy moments like having a baby, but their celebration was felt and heard not only by different neighbourhoods but through different towns,” resident Sara Taglieri, 41, was quoted by AP as saying. 

 

One arrested

Police in the town of Kingston in the Granite State later told in a release that officers had arrested one for purchasing the 1 pound of the explosive material Tannerite. Cops did not identify the detained and said that they were still determining charges that will be forthcoming. According to its official website’s description, Tannerite warns the buyers that the coloured explosive falls under the same federal laws “as black powder and all other explosives that are exempt for sporting purposes from the federal regulations of commercial explosives in their unmixed form.”