Overview
- Federal prosecutors reached settlement agreements announced Tuesday that resolve a civil suit seeking U.S. Forest Service firefighting costs and damage to federal land from the 2020 El Dorado Fire.
- Ohio-based Wholesale Fireworks Corp. and its subsidiary American Fireworks Wholesale agreed to pay $4 million and Florida-based Pink or Blue Gender Team agreed to a payment identified in the DOJ release as $500,000 though some reports give a different figure.
- Investigators say the fire began on Sept. 5, 2020, when a pyrotechnic smoke device used at a gender-reveal party ignited dry grass, a blaze that ultimately burned roughly 22,700–23,000 acres and killed U.S. Forest Service firefighter Charles Morton.
- The Justice Department alleged the companies failed to design and label the smoke bombs safely, failed to warn customers about their fire risk, and distributed devices that should not have been sold into California.
- The settlements close the federal civil case filed in September 2023 and come after the party hosts pleaded guilty in 2024; the outcome may strengthen use of civil suits to recover public firefighting costs and push tighter scrutiny of risky consumer pyrotechnics.