VIDEO: the gender reveal that started a 47,000-acre wildfire

An Arizona couple’s explosive baby announcement sparked a wildfire that destroyed 47,000 acres of land and took a week to extinguish.

US Forest Service officials have released video footage of the disastrous attempt at a unique “gender reveal”, which occurred in April last year, in order to highlight the dangers of starting fires in the wilderness.

The clip shows a makeshift target labelled “boy” and “girl” set up in a field of what appears to be dry grass, near Tucson.

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The proud father-to-be, identified as Border Patrol agent Dennis Dickey, then shoots the target, which explodes in a cascade of blue smoke to reveal that he and his wife are expecting a boy.

However, the explosion ignited the surrounding brush almost immediately. A voice on the clip can be heard shouting “Start packing up!” as the fire spreads.

The flames rapidly advanced to nearby Coronado National Forest, “where they became the Sawmill Fire and burned 46,991 acres owned by the state of Arizona, federal agencies and private landowners”, CNN reports.

Firefighters from 20 stations were drafted in to battle the blaze, which raged for a week before it could finally be contained.

Officials estimate that the total cost of the damage amounted to more than $8m (£6.25m)

Authorities said that Dickey, 37, reported the fire immediately and co-operated with investigators, describing how he had packed the target with a highly explosive substance called Tannerite before shooting it with a high-powered rifle.

After pleading guilty to starting a fire without a permit, he received five years probation and must pay $220,000 in installments, Newsweek reports.

Dickey has expressed remorse for starting the destructive conflagration, which he described as “a complete accident” and “the worst day of my life”.

Tiffany Davila, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, said: “We pass that message on all the time: one spark is all it takes, one spark is all it takes.

“When you see that video, you see how quickly the grasses catch on fire and how quickly it moves.”