Sawmill Fire (2017)

Sawmill Fire
Map of the Sawmill Fire on April 28, 2017
Date(s)	April 23–30, 2017 (2017-04-23 – 2017-04-30)
Location	Pima County, Arizona, US
Coordinates	31°46′55″N 110°50′31″W / 31.782°N 110.842°W / 31.782; -110.842
Statistics
Burned area	46,991 acres (19,017 ha; 73.423 sq mi)
Impacts
Damage	$8.2 million (equivalent to $10.2 million in 2023)
Ignition
Cause	Explosion at gender reveal party
Map
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The Sawmill Fire was a wildfire that burned 46,991 acres (190 km²) in the U.S. state of Arizona in April 2017. The fire was caused by the detonation of a target packed with Tannerite at a gender reveal party in the Coronado National Forest. No injuries or fatalities resulted from the fire, nor were any buildings destroyed, though the fire did come close to the historic Empire Ranch, a National Register of Historic Places property. Over 800 personnel from various federal, state, and local agencies and organizations worked to contain and then extinguish the Sawmill Fire at a cost of $8.2 million (equivalent to $10.2 million in 2023).

The fire was started by accident on April 23, 2017, by Dennis Dickey, an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent who had shot the Tannerite target. Dickey immediately informed first responders of the fire, which spread rapidly until it was contained on April 30. The U.S. Attorney's Office charged Dickey with a misdemeanor charge to which he pleaded guilty, fined him $220,000 in restitution (equivalent to $267,000 in 2023), and sentenced him to five years' probation. When the U.S. Forest Service released footage of the fire's inception in November 2018 at the request of a local news agency, the concept and practice of gender reveal parties became the subject of widespread ridicule and online mockery, a pattern repeated after later wildfires started at such events.