Posted on 03/26/2009 4:54:43 AM PDT by Abathar
YOLO COUNTY, Calif. -- A big explosion, in the name of science, scared a lot of people in a small California town.
It all began with a test from by the crew of the TV show Mythbusters, but their test produced a bigger bank than they expected.
"It was a boom that was just -- I had never heard anything like that before, it was really wired," Sherril Stephens told TV station KCRA.
The explosion was so big, Stephens said it knocked her off the couch and broke her front window. Nearly the entire town of Esparto, Calif., poured into the streets to see what had happened.
"Course all the neighbors ran out into the street. We didn't know what was going on," said Paul Williams, who heard the explosion.
Some people said they thought it was a plane crash, others, a house explosion. All they could see was smoke and dust rising into the sky about a mile from town.
"It felt like a house blew up, straight up," said Williams.
Residents later found out that the Discovery Channel show was trying to literally "knock the socks off" a mannequin with explosives. The 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate was bigger than they expected.
Chief Barry Burns, of Esparto Fire Department, had several firefighters on hand for the explosion. He said he made the decision not to notify anyone in town for safety sake.
"Mythbusters is supposed to be a really popular show. Everybody would have been out there. We would have had to cancel it because it would have been too dangerous," Burns said.
Stephens' window was replaced that same day, compliments of Mythbusters.
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
Just get the rot-gut. ;-)
Nice bank shot via a little slope and a temp inversion !!
Been there did that !!
I missed that episode...
Residents later found out that the Discovery Channel show was trying to literally "knock the socks off" a mannequin with explosives. The 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate was bigger than they expected.
soon to be a related topic, I hope:
Blundering Afghan suicide bomber blows up 6 militants
Reuters
Posted on 03/26/2009 2:18:40 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
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