The U.S. Forest Service has released the video of the gunshot that started April 2017’s Sawmill Fire in southern Arizona, which burned around 45,000 acres.
The video was captured by a person attending a gender-reveal party, and shows a target that was set to divulge whether the expectant mother was to have a boy or girl. A gunshot rings out at the target that was placed in a sand-colored field, which then explodes and breaks out into a fire.
While the fire spreads, plumes of blue smoke are billow into the air, which typically signifies that the baby is a boy. The gun was shot by the father, U.S. Border Patrol agent Dennis Dickey of Tucson, who pled guilty to initiating the wildfire in September, USA Today reports.
It took almost 600 firefighters and other emergency personnel to take control of the fire, which caused $8 million in damage and forced more than 100 people to leave their homes.
Dickey took a plea agreement, which includes a sentence of five years’ probation, participating in a public service announcement for the Forest Service, and a restitution totaling $8,188,069. He has agreed to pay $220,000 in restitution, making his first payment of $100,000, and will pay in monthly installments of $500 over the next 20 years, per BuzzFeed News.
Dickey was off-duty during the time of the party, where he placed the explosive substance Tannerite—a legal substance—into the target, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The fire spread into the Coronado National Forest, and lands regulated by Arizona and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, as well as private lands.
In the video, which was released on Monday, the images of two people running close to the fire have been redacted, with someone in the background yelling “start packing up.”
The U.S. Attorney's Office shared in a press release that Dickey promptly reported the fire, and was cooperative in confessing that he started it.
“It was a complete accident,” Dickey told the judge in federal court, the Arizona Daily Star reported. “I feel absolutely horrible about it. It was probably one of the worst days of my life.”
