Video shows costly Arizona fire began with explosion at border agent’s gender reveal party

An Arizona wildfire that caused more than $8 million in damages was started at a border agent’s gender-reveal party when a target was shot and exploded, immediately setting blaze to the surrounding grassland.

Video obtained by the Arizona Daily Star from the U.S. Forest Service through a Freedom of Information Act request shows the Sawmill Fire from April 2017 beginning. The fire in Southeastern Arizona would eventually burn 47,000 acres and cost more than $8.2 million to extinguish.

{mosads}Border Patrol Agent Dennis Dickey admitted in September of 2017 to setting off the explosive that caused the fire, resulting in him paying $220,000 in restitution and pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of causing a fire without a permit.

The target Dickey shot at contained an explosive device set to go off when shot by a high-velocity firearm.

The video shows a target with “boy” and girl” on it before it explodes in a remote field with blue smoke billowing out of the sides to “reveal” the gender of the baby (male).

The 49-second video shows the target exploding, filling the screen, and the surrounding land in the Santa Rita Mountain foothills quickly lighting on fire. A man can be heard saying “start packing up!” at the end of the video.

The video blacked out people shown in the video. The Forest Service cited exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act law.