I was standing on the sidewalk in the front yard with my mother. I still remember what jacket I had on that day, it was the heaviest jacket I had as a kid. I remember being confused at first as I saw the fireball and the solid rocket boosters diverge. I knew from previous launches that wasn’t supposed to happen, and my mom kept saying to herself, “where are they, why aren’t they getting out of there?” I realized something was wrong, but it wasn’t until my mom grabbed me and rushed me inside that I realized the astronaut’s lives were in mortal danger. She feared the shuttle might have been carrying toxic or nuclear material and might pose a danger to us since we only lived about 20 miles or less from the pad. We watched the replays on NASA TV and waited to make sure there were no evacuation announcements for the area near the space center.
To this day I still have nightmares of shuttles exploding on launch or crashing on landing, but it was much worse when I was younger shortly after the event.