- 3 days ago
A string of party disasters, reckless stunts, and fatal mistakes turns this true-crime-style narration into a grim countdown of the most painful party deaths. From gender reveal fires and exploding homemade devices to a collapsing elevator, a live waterfall, and a deadly allergy mistake, each story shows how celebration can become catastrophe in seconds.
The video moves through shocking real cases in a documentary storytime format, including fireworks accidents, explosive Tannerite reveals, a crop duster crash, a foam-pit spine injury, and a birthday that ends in tragedy on the London Eye. It blends disaster storytelling, accident analysis, and human error with a dark, cautionary tone, making it a strong fit for listeners who enjoy narrated real-life tragedies, shocking stories, and dangerous party gone wrong content.
Created for fans of true stories, disaster stories, accident documentaries, and dark storytime narration, this episode is also ideal for search terms like party disasters, shocking deaths, gender reveal accidents, fireworks accidents, and tragic real-life events. If you follow true-crime-adjacent storytelling, fatal mistakes, and cautionary tales, this is a heavy, unforgettable listen.
The video moves through shocking real cases in a documentary storytime format, including fireworks accidents, explosive Tannerite reveals, a crop duster crash, a foam-pit spine injury, and a birthday that ends in tragedy on the London Eye. It blends disaster storytelling, accident analysis, and human error with a dark, cautionary tone, making it a strong fit for listeners who enjoy narrated real-life tragedies, shocking stories, and dangerous party gone wrong content.
Created for fans of true stories, disaster stories, accident documentaries, and dark storytime narration, this episode is also ideal for search terms like party disasters, shocking deaths, gender reveal accidents, fireworks accidents, and tragic real-life events. If you follow true-crime-adjacent storytelling, fatal mistakes, and cautionary tales, this is a heavy, unforgettable listen.
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00:00The pink smoke. On the 5th of September, 2020, a family walked into a field of 4-foot dry grass
00:07at El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, California,
00:10and set off a small pyrotechnic smoke device at 10.23 a.m. to reveal their baby's sex.
00:17The colored smoke was supposed to make the moment photogenic.
00:20The device burned hot enough to ignite the grass almost instantly.
00:24Witnesses tried dousing the flames with water bottles, but by the time crews arrived, it was spreading north up Yucaipa
00:31Ridge.
00:32Over 71 days, it burned 22,744 acres across two counties and forced more than 20,000 residents out.
00:42On September 17, firefighter Charles Edward Morton, a 39-year-old squad boss with 18 years on the job,
00:49was killed while battling the blaze in the rugged San Gorgonio wilderness.
00:52Two other firefighters were injured.
00:55Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and Angela Rene Jimenez were charged with involuntary manslaughter and other offenses in connection with the
01:05fire.
01:05The couple was ordered to pay $1,789,972 in restitution.
01:12Both crew.
01:13The 30th of March, 2021, over Nichupte Lagoon, in the hotel zone of Cancun, Mexico, a Cessna was operating during
01:23a gender-reveal flight,
01:25hired to fly the announcement low over the water for a party watching below.
01:29The plane came in near the shoreline, triggered the reveal, and the guests cheered and shouted,
01:35it's a girl, as they filmed.
01:37Seconds later, the aircraft climbed slightly, then pitched forward and dropped almost vertically into the lagoon at high speed,
01:43in full view of the party.
01:45Navy divers reached the submerged wreck near kilometer 13 of Boulevard Kukulkan.
01:50The crash killed both crew members.
01:53The pilot died during the rescue in the water.
01:55The co-pilot died while paramedics gave him first aid on land.
01:59Mexico's Civil Aviation Agency opened an investigation.
02:03No cause was ever publicly established and no charges were reported.
02:07The pipe bomb.
02:08Pamela Rae Kreimeyer, 56 years old and the grandmother of the unborn baby, was near Knoxville, Iowa,
02:16on the afternoon of the 26th of October, 2019, waiting for a gender-reveal with five other family members.
02:23They'd spent Friday and Saturday experimenting with explosives to get the effect right.
02:28They welded a metal stand to a base, poured gunpowder inside, set wood and colored powder on top,
02:34drilled a hole for a fuse, and taped the whole thing shut.
02:37The Marion County Sheriff's Office said that sealed metal tube had inadvertently become a pipe bomb.
02:43Someone lit the fuse.
02:45Instead of shooting colored powder upward, the sealed tube exploded and fragmented,
02:50throwing metal in every direction.
02:52A piece struck Pamela in the head and killed her instantly, then kept going.
02:57Investigators reportedly found that same fragment 144 yards away in a field.
03:02Her death was ruled an accident.
03:05No charges were filed.
03:06The uncle.
03:07On the 25th of September, 2022, an expectant couple held a gender-reveal at Cachoeira-Quima-Pay,
03:14a waterfall on the Quima-Pay River near Tangara da Serra in Mato Grosso, Brazil,
03:21decorated with pink and blue balloons and set beside a river that serves the city's water supply.
03:26At the climax of the party, the falling water turned electric blue, and the guests cheered.
03:33The couple posted the video, then deleted it as backlash spread nationally and internationally.
03:39A family member, described as an uncle of one of the couple,
03:43later admitted to inspectors that he had poured a dye called Lago Azul into the water upstream,
03:48insisting it was biodegradable and harmless.
03:52Environmental agency SEMA-MT tested the river and found no change in color or odor downstream,
03:58and no fish kill.
04:00But introducing a chemical into a natural waterway is an infraction under Article 62 of Federal Decree 6,514-2008.
04:09SEMA-MT fined him 10,000 reyes.
04:13In May 2024, prosecutors filed a civil action seeking nearly 190,000 reyes in environmental damages,
04:21and the couple told inspectors they hadn't known he would dye the water.
04:25No one was hurt.
04:27Oh, baby.
04:28A crop duster flew low over a gender-reveal party in San Pedro,
04:32in the municipality of Navolado, Sinaloa, Mexico, on the 3rd of September, 2023,
04:40where a couple stood in front of an Oh Baby sign as guests watched and filmed.
04:46The plane, a Piper P A25-235 Pawnee flown by a 32-year-old local pilot reported as Luis Angel
04:54Lopez-Jeras,
04:55released a plume of pink smoke over the crowd to announce a girl.
04:58The reveal worked, and the guests began cheering and hugging.
05:02As the aircraft climbed and turned away, its left wing folded in on itself.
05:08The plane spun and crashed into the ground.
05:10In the footage, the crowd kept celebrating,
05:13apparently unaware that the disaster was unfolding overhead.
05:17The pilot, the only person aboard, was pulled from the wreck,
05:21taken to the Ems Hospital in Navolado, and died of his injuries.
05:25Authorities said the cause remained under investigation.
05:28No one else was hurt.
05:30The Blue Puff.
05:31On the 23rd of April, 2017, around 11 a.m.,
05:36off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent Dennis Dickey
05:39held a gender reveal party on Dry State Trust Land near Green Valley, Arizona,
05:45using a homemade target painted Boy and Girl,
05:48and packed with Tannerite, a binary explosive that detonates when hit by a rifle round.
05:53Dickey fired at it.
05:55On the fourth shot, the round struck the Tannerite,
05:58and it went off with a cloud of blue smoke for a boy.
06:01The heat and blast ignited the surrounding dry grass.
06:05Dickey reported it immediately and admitted starting it on the spot.
06:09The blaze became the Sawmill Fire,
06:11one of Arizona's more infamous gender-reveal disasters,
06:15and hundreds of firefighters worked to bring it under control.
06:18Dickey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor Forest Service violation,
06:22got five years probation,
06:24and was ordered to pay $8,188,069 in restitution for a puff of blue smoke.
06:31The brother beside him.
06:33Christopher Peckney, a 28-year-old expectant father from Liberty, New York,
06:38died on the 21st of February, 2021,
06:42when a device he was building for a gender reveal exploded.
06:46Police described it only as a pipe-like contraption still under construction,
06:50and they stressed it was never meant to harm anyone.
06:53It exploded while Christopher was still building it.
06:56He was killed by the blast.
06:58His brother, Michael, 27,
07:00was injured and taken to Garnet Medical Center in Middletown in stable condition.
07:05The State Police Bomb Disposal Unit investigated.
07:08It was treated as an accident, with no suspect, no arrest, and no charges.
07:13The cannon.
07:13Evan Thomas Silva was a guest at a baby shower in Gaines Township, Michigan,
07:18standing near an antique signal cannon the homeowner had bought at auction.
07:22The cannon was legal and had been fired many times before without issue.
07:27That day, it was loaded with gunpowder and aimed away from the garage,
07:31toward an open field.
07:33When it fired, the frame ruptured instead of booming.
07:36Metal fragments tore across the yard, striking parked vehicles and the garage.
07:43One shard traveled roughly 10 to 15 feet and hit Silva in the chest.
07:48He was rushed to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where he died.
07:52Authorities said the cannon may have been overloaded.
07:5580 pounds.
07:56On the 20th of April, 2021, a family held a gender reveal in Kingston, New Hampshire,
08:02and set off explosives at the site.
08:05What they set off was about 80 pounds of Tannerite,
08:08an over-the-counter explosive target normally used for firearms practice in tiny amounts.
08:14The detonation produced a blast so large that residents flooded 911 lines,
08:20some convinced it was an earthquake.
08:22The explosion rattled homes across southern New Hampshire
08:25and over the state line into northern Massachusetts.
08:28Residents reported foundation cracks and other damage.
08:31Police went looking for those responsible,
08:34and the man who bought and detonated it turned himself in.
08:38Kingston police charged Anthony Spinelli with disorderly conduct for the widespread public alarm.
08:43No one was injured, and no death resulted from the blast.
08:48350 gallons.
08:49Near the town of Turkey, Texas.
08:52On the 7th of September, 2019, around 7.30 p.m., pilot Raj L.,
08:59Horan took an Air Tractor AT-602 Crop Duster Low over a gender reveal party,
09:05carrying a passenger, Jennifer J. Harrell, in what is designed as a single-seat aircraft.
09:11The plan was to dump about 350 gallons of pink water over the field
09:16to reveal the baby's sex to the guests below.
09:19Horan made the low pass and released the load.
09:23Then the plane got too slow.
09:25The NTSB found the pilot failed to maintain airspeed
09:29and exceeded the wing's critical angle of attack,
09:31so the aircraft stalled, impacted the ground, and came to rest inverted,
09:36with substantial damage to the fuselage, right wing, and tail.
09:41The NTSB reported one minor injury and one occupant unhurt.
09:46No charges were filed.
09:47The stunt joined a growing list of gender reveals gone wrong,
09:51though this one, by a narrow margin, killed no one.
10:00The guy who looked down the tube.
10:03New Year's Eve, 2021.
10:05In Heneff, Germany, a 37-year-old man is celebrating with friends.
10:11Due to a sales ban, legal fireworks are off the table.
10:14But this guy, he is resourceful.
10:17He bought some illegal fireworks from a seller on WhatsApp.
10:21Because, you know, what could possibly go wrong with explosives
10:24sourced from a random dude on the Internet?
10:27Shortly after midnight, he and a friend leave the main party
10:30and head out to a large garden.
10:32Auf Wiedersehen, meine lieben Freunde.
10:34They've got their illegal firework,
10:36a Kugelbombe, or ball shell,
10:39and an improvised mortar to launch it from.
10:42And when I say improvised mortar,
10:44I mean they stuck a gray plastic rainpipe into the ground.
10:48A drainage pipe.
10:50To launch a bomb.
10:52My God.
10:54Our German hero,
10:56who was also heavily intoxicated
10:58with a blood alcohol level of 1.18,
11:00gets ready for the big show.
11:02He places the ball shell in the pipe.
11:05He lights the fuse.
11:06And then,
11:08nothing happens.
11:10So, what does any rational person do
11:13when a bomb doesn't immediately explode?
11:15You run, right?
11:17Ich renne nicht.
11:18Ich bin nur sehr effizient unterwegs.
11:20You take cover.
11:21You assume it's a dud and leave it alone.
11:25Well, this guy, in his infinite wisdom,
11:28decides to do the one thing
11:30you should never, ever do.
11:32He leans over the pipe
11:34and looks down the tube to see what's wrong.
11:37At that exact moment,
11:39the firework exploded.
11:41Directly in his face.
11:43Forensic analysis later confirmed
11:45he was bent over when it happened.
11:47The explosion was so powerful,
11:49it caused what the medical journal
11:51described as
11:52massive destruction
11:53of almost all facial tissue.
11:56His eyes, nose, and mouth were,
11:59and I quote,
12:00mutilated and no longer depictable.
12:03His facial skull was shattered
12:05into fragments.
12:06The blast wave was so intense,
12:09it hyperinflated his lungs,
12:10and pieces of the firework casing
12:12and metal particles
12:13shot into his body,
12:15creating wounds that looked
12:16just like gunshots.
12:18Bro, he was technically
12:20resuscitated at the scene,
12:21but with his face and skull obliterated,
12:24there was nothing to be done.
12:26He died from massive head trauma.
12:28His 39-year-old friend
12:30was severely injured,
12:31but survived.
12:35The 21-year-old who sold the fireworks
12:37was later caught and put on trial.
12:39But for our main character,
12:41the lesson was a brutal one.
12:43Never, ever look down the tube.
12:48Stephen Hewitt Brown
12:50Not all stupid deaths
12:52are because of the victim's own actions.
12:54Sometimes, the stupidity belongs
12:56to someone else entirely,
12:57and the victim is just
13:00tragically, horribly unlucky.
13:03Or in this case, a hero.
13:06It's New Year's Eve, 2015,
13:08around midnight in Manhattan.
13:1025-year-old Stephen Hewitt Brown
13:12is in an apartment building
13:13on Broom Street,
13:14a building with a known history
13:16of elevator problems.
13:17I mean, multiple open violations,
13:20previous complaints,
13:21the works.
13:22And of course,
13:24on New Year's Eve,
13:25the elevator gets stuck between floors.
13:28The door opens,
13:29revealing a dangerous gap.
13:31Stephen, instead of panicking,
13:33takes charge.
13:34He helps another woman in the elevator,
13:36pushing her out
13:37to the safety of the floor.
13:39According to witness Manuel Coronado,
13:41as Stephen was pushing her out,
13:43he called out,
13:44Happy New Year!
13:45to the bystanders.
13:47She makes it out.
13:48A true hero moment.
13:50But as Stephen tries to get out himself,
13:52the elevator...
13:54Bro, it suddenly drops.
13:57The car,
13:58weighing thousands of pounds,
14:00plunges downward,
14:01and Stephen is caught
14:02between the elevator
14:04and the shaft wall.
14:06He was crushed instantly.
14:08Those were his last words.
14:10Happy New Year.
14:12Said with a smile,
14:13moments before he was killed.
14:15He died right there.
14:17A hero who saved a woman's life
14:19only to be killed
14:20by a negligent building owner's refusal
14:22to fix a faulty elevator.
14:24The stupidity here wasn't his.
14:27It belonged to whoever decided
14:28that saving a few bucks
14:30on elevator maintenance
14:31was worth more than a human life.
14:35Tulio Bom Tempo
14:36New Year's Eve,
14:382023.
14:40We're in Brasilia,
14:41the capital of Brazil,
14:43at a fancy,
14:44upscale party
14:45at the Botanic Club.
14:46It's a hot summer night
14:48in the Southern Hemisphere,
14:49and 33-year-old Tulio Bom Tempo
14:52is celebrating with his friends.
14:54The club has this cool,
14:55decorative feature,
14:57an artificial waterfall
14:58cascading into a pool.
15:00It looks refreshing.
15:02It looks...
15:04inviting.
15:05It was, however,
15:07not meant for swimming.
15:08And,
15:09unbeknownst to anyone at the party,
15:11it had a deadly secret.
15:14Tulio,
15:15feeling hot from the party,
15:16decides he's going to cool off.
15:18And instead of,
15:19you know,
15:20grabbing a cold drink
15:21or standing in front of a fan,
15:23he decides to jump
15:24into the decorative waterfall.
15:27The moment he touched the water,
15:29he was electrocuted.
15:31The pump system for the waterfall
15:32had a massive electrical leak,
15:35turning the entire pool of water
15:37into a live circuit.
15:39Tulio's body completed that circuit.
15:41He went into immediate cardiac arrest
15:44and collapsed.
15:45A friend,
15:46seeing him go down,
15:48heroically jumped in to save him.
15:50He was also instantly electrocuted.
15:53Miraculously,
15:54this friend survived.
15:56But Tulio wasn't so lucky.
15:58Emergency services arrived
16:00and pulled them from the water.
16:01They performed CPR on Tulio
16:04for 50 minutes.
16:0650.
16:07For nearly an hour,
16:09they tried to bring him back.
16:11But it was no use.
16:13The combination of the electrocution
16:15and the drowning
16:16was too much.
16:17He was pronounced dead
16:19in the early hours
16:20of New Year's Day.
16:21An investigation later found
16:23the club was negligent.
16:25The electrical leak
16:26was a disaster waiting to happen.
16:28But it was Tulio's decision
16:29to jump into a water feature
16:31that wasn't a swimming pool
16:32that sealed his fate.
16:34It was a stupid,
16:36impulsive decision
16:37that cost him his life
16:38and nearly cost his friend his too.
16:43The host and the guest.
16:46Some traditions are beautiful.
16:48Some are...
16:49Eh, less so.
16:51And some are just plain idiotic.
16:54Like, for example,
16:56the tradition of firing a gun
16:59into the air
16:59to celebrate New Year's.
17:01Bro, seriously?
17:03On December 31, 2023,
17:06in Shivamoga, India,
17:08a 67-year-old businessman
17:10named Manjunath Olekar
17:12was hosting a New Year's Eve party
17:14at his home.
17:15He was a licensed gun owner,
17:16and every year,
17:17he would fire his rifle
17:19into the air at midnight
17:20to celebrate.
17:21This year, of course,
17:22he decided to do it again.
17:24As midnight approached,
17:26Olekar got his rifle.
17:27He was in the process
17:29of loading it,
17:29getting ready for the big moment.
17:31But while he was loading it,
17:33he accidentally pressed the trigger.
17:35The gun fired.
17:37The bullet hit 34-year-old Vinay,
17:39who was standing nearby.
17:41Vinay wasn't just any guest,
17:43but a friend of Olekar's son.
17:45At close range,
17:46the shot was devastating.
17:48Vinay collapsed
17:49and was rushed to the hospital.
17:51He died the next day
17:52from massive internal injuries.
17:54But the story doesn't end there.
17:57Olekar, seeing his son's friend
17:59lying on the floor,
18:00bleeding out from a wound
18:01he had just caused,
18:02went into shock.
18:03The guilt, the horror,
18:05the sudden realization
18:06that he had just shot
18:07his own child's friend,
18:09it was too much
18:10for his body to handle.
18:11He clutched his chest
18:13and collapsed.
18:14He had a massive,
18:15fatal heart attack.
18:17Right there on the spot.
18:19Olekar died almost immediately.
18:21Within a day,
18:23both the guest
18:23and the host were dead.
18:25One from a gunshot,
18:27the other from the shock
18:28of firing it.
18:29A New Year's celebration
18:31turned into a double funeral.
18:33All because of a stupid,
18:35pointless tradition
18:35that serves no purpose
18:37other than to risk lives.
18:39This time,
18:40it claimed two.
18:43The human launch pad.
18:46And finally,
18:47a category of stupidity
18:49so profound,
18:50so baffling,
18:51baffling,
18:52that it's happened
18:52more than once.
18:54Now,
18:54this one didn't end in death,
18:56but it very easily could have.
18:58And honestly,
18:59it's so incredibly stupid
19:00that I just had to include it
19:02in this video.
19:03We're talking about
19:04the geniuses
19:05who look at a firework
19:06and think,
19:07you know where this
19:08should be launched from?
19:10My ass.
19:12Bro,
19:13I wish I was joking.
19:15First,
19:16let's go to Sunderland
19:16in the UK.
19:17On bonfire night in 2006,
19:20a 22-year-old man
19:21decided to entertain
19:22his friends by,
19:24and I quote,
19:25placing a
19:26Black Cat Thunderbolt rocket
19:28between his buttocks
19:30and lighting it.
19:32Yep,
19:33you heard that right.
19:34Paramedics arrived
19:35to find him bleeding
19:36with the rocket
19:37lodged inside him.
19:39He had a scorched colon
19:40and severe internal burns.
19:42A paramedic,
19:44Douglas McDougal,
19:45stated that the man
19:46could have easily
19:47died.
19:48He pointed out
19:49that there are major
19:49blood vessels in that area,
19:51and the risk of infection
19:52was huge.
19:54But,
19:54he also added
19:55this terrifying
19:56little detail.
19:58The human body
19:59naturally produces
20:00methane gas.
20:02Methane is flammable.
20:04So,
20:04you're essentially
20:05lighting a bomb
20:06in a methane-filled chamber.
20:09It could have been,
20:10and I quote,
20:11a lot worse
20:12than it really was.
20:14And you'd think
20:15that would be a one-off,
20:16right?
20:16A single,
20:18solitary moment
20:18of unparalleled stupidity.
20:20But no.
20:22Fast forward to 2012
20:23in Darwin, Australia.
20:25Another 22-year-old man
20:27at a party
20:28decides to do
20:28the exact same thing.
20:31He sticks a firecracker
20:33between his butt cheeks
20:34and lights it.
20:35The result?
20:37Severe and painful burns
20:39to his buttocks,
20:40his back,
20:41and his genitals.
20:42The police watch commander,
20:44Gary Smith,
20:45summed it up perfectly.
20:46What must have seemed
20:47to be a great idea
20:48at the time
20:49has obviously backfired.
20:51He then dryly added,
20:53and apparently
20:53they're not designed
20:54for that particular placement.
20:56Both of these men
20:57survived
20:58by sheer dumb luck.
21:00They are walking,
21:01talking monuments
21:02to the fact
21:03that sometimes,
21:05sometimes the only thing
21:06separating a stupid death
21:08from a stupid story
21:09is a few inches
21:11and a little bit of methane.
21:13So, um,
21:15watch out this New Year's Eve.
21:17Don't look down any tubes,
21:19stay out of decorative waterfalls,
21:21and for the love of God,
21:23keep the fireworks
21:24away from your backside.
21:31Lizzie Hammond.
21:33Birthday parties.
21:34They're supposed to be
21:35about cake,
21:36presents,
21:36and, you know,
21:38happy memories.
21:39But sometimes,
21:40a celebration can turn
21:41into a nightmare
21:42in the blink of an eye.
21:44This first one?
21:46This one is particularly brutal.
21:48Meet Lizzie Hammond,
21:50a sweet nine-year-old girl
21:51at a birthday party
21:52in Reno, Nevada
21:53on a hot summer day
21:55in July 2019.
21:57The centerpiece of the party
21:58was a big, colorful,
22:00inflatable water slide.
22:02You know the type.
22:03Kids bouncing,
22:04splashing,
22:05and a little pool
22:05at the bottom.
22:06Lizzie was there
22:07with her two-year-old sister,
22:09Abby,
22:09and her four-year-old brother,
22:10Danny.
22:11Just a perfect summer day.
22:13And then the wind picked up.
22:15Not just a breeze,
22:16but a sudden,
22:17violent desert gust.
22:19Lizzie's mom, Wendy,
22:20saw the massive inflatable
22:21start to lift
22:22and screamed for the kids
22:23to get out.
22:23She managed to grab
22:25her toddler, Abby,
22:26trusting Lizzie,
22:27the responsible big sister,
22:29to help her little brother.
22:31But there was no time.
22:33The wind ripped
22:34the entire bounce house
22:35from the ground,
22:36knocking Wendy over.
22:37The whole structure,
22:39with Lizzie and Danny
22:40still inside,
22:40shot upwards,
22:41directly towards a set
22:43of high-voltage power lines.
22:44The cheerful,
22:45pastel-colored vinyl
22:46slammed against
22:47the dark,
22:48buzzing wires.
22:49The bounce house deflated,
22:50and the children fell.
22:52Lizzie didn't die
22:53from electrocution.
22:54She suffered massive,
22:56blunt-force trauma
22:57to her head
22:57when she hit the ground.
22:58She was rushed
22:59to the hospital,
23:00but the damage
23:01was too severe.
23:02Her parents described
23:03her injuries as
23:04astronomical.
23:06Skull fractures,
23:07a swollen face,
23:08internal bleeding.
23:09She died two days later,
23:11surrounded by her family.
23:13The most heartbreaking part?
23:15As she was kept
23:16on life support,
23:17the hospital staff
23:18formed an honor walk,
23:20lining the hallways
23:21as her bed was wheeled
23:22to the operating room.
23:24Her kidneys and liver
23:25were donated,
23:26saving the lives
23:27of three other children.
23:28Her family later started
23:29the Lizzie Hammond Foundation,
23:31pushing for Lizzie's law
23:33to create stricter
23:34safety regulations
23:34for inflatables.
23:36And the owner
23:37of the bounce house?
23:38He didn't even get a fine.
23:42Cuba Libre Bar
23:44From a backyard party
23:45to a nightclub.
23:47This next one
23:48happened in Rouen, France
23:49in August 2016.
23:51A group of friends
23:53are celebrating
23:53a 20th birthday
23:54in the basement
23:55of the Cuba Libre Bar.
23:57It's a small,
23:58cramped space,
23:59but it's their private party.
24:01The walls
24:02and the low ceiling
24:02are covered in foam
24:03for soundproofing.
24:05You can probably see
24:07where this is going.
24:08Just before 1 a.m.,
24:09a young woman
24:10brings down
24:11the birthday cake.
24:12It's lit up with candles
24:13and those little
24:14fountain sparklers.
24:15As she's coming down
24:16the narrow staircase,
24:17she trips.
24:18The cake goes flying.
24:20The burning candles
24:21and sparklers
24:22land on the floor
24:23and roll against
24:24the foam-covered walls.
24:26The foam, which was extremely flammable,
24:33ignited instantly.
24:34Because of the low ceiling
24:36and the small enclosed space,
24:38the fire spread
24:38with terrifying speed.
24:40Within seconds,
24:41the entire basement
24:43was a raging inferno,
24:44filled with thick,
24:45black, toxic smoke.
24:47There were about 20 young people,
24:49mostly between 18 and 25,
24:51packed into that tiny room.
24:53There was only one way out.
24:55The same narrow staircase
24:56the cake came down.
24:58Panic erupted.
25:00People were trampling
25:01each other in the dark,
25:02choking on the poisonous fumes,
25:04their lungs burning.
25:06Most of the victims
25:07didn't die from the flames.
25:08They died from asphyxiation.
25:10The fire department
25:11was there quickly,
25:12but by the time
25:13they put the fire out,
25:1413 people were already dead.
25:16A 14th victim died later
25:18in the hospital.
25:19The scene in the basement
25:21was described as
25:22a charred, blackened box,
25:24melted plastic dripping
25:26from the ceiling,
25:27the smell of burnt foam
25:28and death.
25:30It was the deadliest nightclub fire
25:32in France in over 40 years.
25:35And it all started
25:36with a birthday cake.
25:38A simple, happy tradition
25:40that, in the wrong place
25:41at the wrong time,
25:43turned into a death trap.
25:46The Helium Hit
25:48Okay, this next one is
25:50different.
25:52It's a death that happened
25:53because of a party trick.
25:55A stupid, seemingly harmless
25:58party trick that everyone
25:59has seen, or maybe even done.
26:01But this time,
26:02it went horribly, horribly wrong.
26:05It's September 10th, 2022
26:07in Teppuke, New Zealand.
26:09Faith Waterman Badistich,
26:11a 20-year-old mother of two,
26:13is celebrating her youngest child's
26:15very first birthday.
26:17It's a happy, family-filled day.
26:19There are streamers, balloons,
26:21and a big helium cylinder
26:23in the corner to fill them up.
26:24At some point,
26:26the helium voice jokes start.
26:28You know,
26:29taking a puff from a balloon
26:30and talking like a chipmunk.
26:32It's dumb, but it's funny.
26:34Then, someone gets an idea.
26:36Why not inhale the helium
26:37directly from the cylinder?
26:39It'll be even funnier, right?
26:41Wrong.
26:42So, so wrong.
26:44Faith is hesitant at first,
26:46but she's eventually talked into it.
26:48Someone turns the valve
26:50on the industrial-grade cylinder.
26:52What comes out
26:53isn't a gentle puff of gas.
26:54It's a high-pressure,
26:56high-flow jet of pure helium.
26:59According to her twin sister,
27:00the stream shot out so fast
27:02it was like it went
27:03behind her neck,
27:04filling her lungs
27:05in a fraction of a second.
27:06She collapsed instantly.
27:08There was no lightheadedness,
27:10no giggling,
27:11just down.
27:13Her family,
27:14thinking it was a joke at first,
27:16quickly realized
27:16something was terribly wrong.
27:18They started CPR.
27:20They called for help.
27:21Paramedics worked on her
27:23for 45 minutes,
27:24but it was no use.
27:25She was gone.
27:27Here's the science.
27:28When you inhale from a balloon,
27:30you're getting a mix
27:31of helium and air.
27:32When you inhale directly
27:34from a pressurized tank,
27:35the helium displaces
27:36all the oxygen in your lungs.
27:38It literally pulls the oxygen
27:40out of your blood.
27:41Your brain is starved of oxygen,
27:43and you pass out in seconds.
27:45On top of that,
27:47the sheer pressure
27:47can cause barotrauma,
27:49rupturing the delicate air sacs
27:51in your lungs
27:51and causing you to drown
27:53in your own blood.
27:54It took just 0.2 seconds
27:56to deliver a fatal dose.
27:59A birthday party trick
28:01turned into an execution.
28:04The fairy cake.
28:06Some birthday challenges
28:08are just Darwin awards
28:10waiting to happen.
28:11This one took place
28:13at a pub in Wales.
28:14It was a birthday-themed event,
28:16and one of the main attractions
28:17was a fairy cake eating contest.
28:20The rules were simple.
28:22Stuff as many of these
28:23little cupcakes
28:24into your mouth as you can,
28:25as fast as you can.
28:27I mean,
28:28what could possibly go wrong?
28:30A young man
28:31in his early 20s
28:32was all in.
28:33He was cramming cake
28:34after cake
28:35into his mouth,
28:36barely chewing,
28:37just swallowing them down.
28:39And then,
28:40one of them got stuck.
28:42He couldn't breathe.
28:43He couldn't speak.
28:44He started panicking,
28:46clutching at his throat.
28:47The fun,
28:48drunken atmosphere of the pub
28:49turned to horror
28:50in an instant.
28:51People rushed to help,
28:52but the cake
28:53was lodged deep
28:54in his airway.
28:55By the time paramedics arrived,
28:57it was too late.
28:58He had suffered
28:59irreversible brain damage
29:01from the lack of oxygen.
29:04Choking is a terrifying
29:05way to die.
29:06You're conscious,
29:07you're aware of everything,
29:09but you are completely helpless.
29:11A burning sensation
29:12in your throat,
29:13immense pressure
29:14in your chest,
29:15and the blackness
29:16closing in.
29:17all for a stupid,
29:19drunken contest
29:20over a cupcake.
29:25Jason Greenwood.
29:26This next one is a dad
29:28trying to be cool
29:29for his kids,
29:30and it ends
29:32in the most horrific way
29:33imaginable.
29:34It's January 2018.
29:3646-year-old Jason Greenwood
29:38is at the Extreme Air Park
29:40in Richmond, Canada
29:41for a family outing.
29:42It's a massive
29:44indoor trampoline park
29:45filled with kids
29:46and music
29:47and neon lights.
29:49Jason,
29:50a stepfather to three,
29:51decides to show off.
29:52He tells his family
29:54to film him
29:54as he attempts
29:55a front flip
29:56into a giant pit
29:57filled with foam blocks.
29:59You know,
30:00one of those
30:01dad-does-a-trick moments.
30:02He gets a running start,
30:04bounces high
30:05on the trampoline,
30:06and launches himself
30:07into the air.
30:08But his rotation is off.
30:10Instead of landing
30:11on his back
30:12or his feet,
30:12he goes into
30:13the foam pit
30:14head first.
30:16And then,
30:17he doesn't come back up.
30:19He just disappears
30:20beneath the surface
30:21of the colorful foam blocks.
30:23At first,
30:25no one thinks anything of it.
30:26But after a minute,
30:27his family starts
30:28to get worried.
30:29Panic sets in.
30:31A group of people
30:32start frantically
30:33digging through the foam,
30:34while other kids
30:35are still jumping
30:36on the trampolines
30:37around them.
30:38The coroner's report
30:39later described it
30:40as a very chaotic scene.
30:43They finally find him,
30:44deep in the pit,
30:45upside down,
30:46his neck bent
30:47at an unnatural angle.
30:49He had suffered
30:50a high cervical spine fracture,
30:52which paralyzed him
30:53and stopped
30:54his breathing instantly.
30:55He was likely conscious
30:57for part of the 21 minutes
30:58it took for firefighters
30:59to get him out,
31:00trapped and suffocating
31:02under a sea of foam.
31:03The coroner stated
31:05that faster medical help
31:06could have saved him.
31:07The park staff
31:08had no first aid training.
31:10Their only instruction
31:11in an emergency?
31:12Call 911.
31:15Owen Carey.
31:18Our final story
31:19is a tragedy
31:20that could have
31:21and should have
31:22been avoided.
31:23It's April 22, 2017,
31:26and Owen Carey
31:27is celebrating
31:28his 18th birthday
31:29in London.
31:30He's out with his family
31:31and his girlfriend
31:32having a great day.
31:34Owen had severe food allergies
31:36his whole life,
31:37especially to dairy.
31:38He was always careful,
31:39always checking labels,
31:41always telling restaurant staff
31:42about his allergies.
31:44For lunch,
31:45the group goes
31:45to a popular chain,
31:47Byron Burger.
31:48Owen orders
31:49a plain grilled chicken burger.
31:51He tells the server
31:52explicitly about
31:53his dairy allergy
31:54and is assured
31:55the chicken
31:55is safe for him to eat.
31:57He takes one bite,
31:58just one,
32:00and he knows
32:01something is wrong.
32:02A tingling in his mouth,
32:04a tightness in his throat.
32:06The chicken,
32:07it turns out,
32:08had been marinated
32:08in buttermilk.
32:10He and his girlfriend
32:11leave the restaurant
32:12to continue his birthday celebration,
32:14heading towards
32:14the London Eye.
32:15But Owen's condition
32:17is getting worse.
32:18He's struggling to breathe,
32:19using his asthma inhaler
32:21over and over,
32:22but it's not helping.
32:24Near the London Eye,
32:25in front of crowds
32:26of tourists,
32:27he collapses.
32:28He was having
32:29a severe
32:30anaphylactic reaction.
32:31His airway
32:32was swelling shut.
32:34Paramedics arrived,
32:35but it was too late.
32:36He died right there,
32:38on the pavement,
32:39on his 18th birthday.
32:40All because a restaurant
32:42failed to take
32:43his allergy seriously.
32:45The coroner later ruled
32:46that Owen was
32:47misled by the menu.
32:49His family started
32:50a campaign
32:51for Owen's Law,
32:52demanding clear,
32:54mandatory allergen labeling
32:55on all restaurant menus.
32:57They didn't want
32:58any other family
32:58to go through
32:59what they did.
32:59A birthday
33:00that should have been
33:01a celebration of life
33:02became a memorial
33:04to a life cut
33:05tragically short.
33:06Thanks so much
33:07for rocking with the channel
33:08for real.
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33:12And got a topic
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33:16Let's get startedano
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