Mysterious Fireball Prompts Dozens Of 911 Calls

Mysterious Fireball Prompts Dozens Of 911 Calls

cbs2.com

SAN BERNARDINO (AP) ― A mysterious fireball has lit up the sky in San Bernardino County.

Tom Barnes, a county fire dispatch supervisor, says people from the Nevada state line to Temecula reported seeing a bright streak falling near the San Bernardino Mountains on Tuesday morning.

Some witnesses say the streak was blue, orange and white.

No landing site was found.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I live in Las Vegas, but did not see this.

Anyone else get a chance to see this?


cbs2.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

No one in SOCAL caught a glimpse?

Here is some more about it...

San Bernardino County Fire Dispatch reported receiving dozens of calls related to what was described as fireball moving at high speed and falling in northwest sky around 10:40 a.m.

"We got quite a few reports. It started with a gentlemen in the Lake Arrowhead reporting a fireball in the Meadow Bay area and then we started getting calls from all over," said San Bernardino County dispatch supervisor Tom Barnes. "Fire crews in Barstow and on I-15 near Stateline came up on the radio and reported an object in the sky moving very fast across the northern sky and described it as yellowish green in color with streaks of debris. It looked like it burned up before it hit the ground."

Free Public

Sounds like a meteorite...
Maybe it's no big deal, but it is rare you get one that is bright enough to be seen by so many people in the daytime.

They called 911?
What idiocy! Who did they think was going to do what?
They could have called the raido station to report a newsy thing, but 911?

We had something similar here in Oregon not too long ago. They reported it as a meteor. I'm not certain, but I believe they never found where it hit.

I agree that it is odd that people would call 911 over something like that. What would fire and rescue do about something like that unless it struck in a populated area. And if that happened the people who do call 911 would probably be the people near the point of impact.

reply to post by OhZone


lol.

I think some people thought it was some kind of aircraft burning up on the way down...

There is something about the colours of blue, orange, and white that strikes me as odd. If it were a meteorite I would be very interested to know its composition.

Originally posted by OhZone
They called 911?
What idiocy! Who did they think was going to do what?
They could have called the raido station to report a newsy thing, but 911?

There are already fires in Cal... this could have made another. There's one reason. Number 2, it may have been a crashing plane, which, If I'm thinking logically here....either case would require Emergency Personnel to be on the scene (either fighting a fire, or rescuing/retrieving bodies)...i.e. CALLING 911

They did a smart thing for the circumstances.

Any other news on this? Probably a meteor?

The same man who thought it might be a plane in distress (there may have been others...) was the first to report the sighting. 68 year-old Dan Bowman also offered a vivid description that was slightly different from several of the other witnesses I've read about thus far.

His original belief was that it would rendezvous at the Bell Mountain area or maybe even the Stoddard Wells Recreation Area (approx. 110 miles North -NorthWest of Los Angeles).

Then he described what he saw:

“I saw it for three of four seconds,” Bowman said. “The front of it looked like a glacier blue and then it got orangey. The tail-end of it was white like big shattered mirrors.”

This was slightly different from other reports that didn't note seeing the blue, its more than likely they didn't get quite as good of a view as Bowman. But the shattered mirrors would coincide with the reports of being able to see "debris" attached to bullet train.

The article goes on to report this:

Barstow Fire Protection District personnel were dispatched to the Calico area and found no evidence of a meteorite hitting the ground.

But Calico is another 40-50 miles North of where Bowman suggested.

So what does that mean? Get in your cars, pay $5 a gallon to fill er up, and get on the 15 to do your own investigation. If any one wants to drive up there in an ATS caravan, U2U me and it's on. I'm in Los Angeles.

Here's part of the transcript as the calls were being fielded about a comet-like object blazing through the 10:40 AM sky.... It reads best if you go to the bottom and read up.

Doesn't lead to much, but it is interesting to read.

This comes from the Rense website:

11:06 AM
Tue 7/1
From: 40K
To :To Dispatch 171.4750
Big Bear to Lucerne area; we have the same initial address in Lake Arrowhead; one employee states that it looked like it fell in the Lucerne area; another states possible Cottonwood area; [40K] can we have the frequency?

11:05 AM
Tue 7/1
Big Bear has no information on overdue or missing aircraft at this time
11:03 AM
Tue 7/1
From: E291
We aren't finding anything here; we're assuming this is probably something huge and could even be in the Riverside county area. "I think it's going to be way out there in the desert by the time they finally find it." Heading out to Johnson Grade to take a look.

11:03 AM
Tue 7/1
contacting Big Bear Airport to make sure there is no missing aircraft from there

11:03 AM
Tue 7/1
also a report of near Sycamore Heights near Big Bear
11:03 AM
Tue 7/1

We're getting reports from as far away as Nevada, so, whatever it was, it was big.
11:02 AM
Tue 7/1

From: eng14
To :To Dispatch
eng14 - we are checking the 173 area.

11:02 AM
Tue 7/1
We think we may have had a large asteroid come down.

11:01 AM
Tue 7/1
We're getting reports from all over the mountain.

11:01 AM
Tue 7/1
Riverside county fire has reports as far as Temecula of seeing this thing; behind Yucaipa with the mountain with the R

11:00 AM
Tue 7/1
Have 111 check the Lucerne side

11:00 AM
Tue 7/1
Copy, we're checking the Baldwin Lake area
11:00 AM
Tue 7/1

"this thing possibly broke up in the atmosphere and fell over several areas on the mountain top"
11:00 AM
Tue 7/1

From: Bat 12
Do you have anything showing on the Lucerne valley side? negative at this time.
10:59 AM
Tue 7/1
From: BDF Dispatch

Calling this Mountain Top incident
10:58 AM
Tue 7/1

From: Dispatch
To :E291
Getting multiple reports of this now from the Big Bear area; it appears to have gone over the ridgeline in the Butler Peak area and come down on the other side of the ridge. We're going to need a couple of helicopters on this.

10:58 AM
Tue 7/1
We are starting Air Attack 12.

10:58 AM
Tue 7/1
From: BDF Dispatch
Seen from the east side of Big Bear to Arrowhead.

10:58 AM
Tue 7/1
Another report from the mountain top area reports that it looked like it landed in Lucerene

10:58 AM
Tue 7/1
We have a firefighter who saw this

10:57 AM
Tue 7/1
We're also getting a report in the Crab Flats area.

10:57 AM
Tue 7/1
From: Bat12
To :To Dispatch 171.4750
Engines out of Big Bear Lake responding, I think, to that same call

10:56 AM
Tue 7/1
north and east of Lake Arrowhead for now; 40K is going to the Erwin Ranch area

10:56 AM
Tue 7/1
This has now been reported by several people, we're gonna get 40K up.

10:56 AM
Tue 7/1
From: Dispatch 171.4750
To :Bat12
40K is going to check the area; it was witnessed by a couple other people, one being a FS Recreation Unit

10:54 AM
Tue 7/1
From: Dispatch 171.4750
To :Butler Peak Lookout
having Butler Peak take a look in that direction

10:54 AM
Tue 7/1
2nd RP reports he saw the same thing, it went over the rdige line and it did impact

10:53 AM
Tue 7/1
FAA has not called yet; they usually do in this type of case; requesting 40K to take a look

10:51 AM
Tue 7/1
RP describes it almost like a comet

10:51 AM
Tue 7/1
RP was looking North by Northeast, can we get 40K up? RP reports he saw a tail section in the flame.

10:50 AM
Tue 7/1
From: Dispatch 171.4750
To :E11
smoke check; dispatched to RPs address; RP reporting from residence large flame in the sky

Nearly every time a large meteor like this one is seen by lots of people, someone inevitably calls 911 to report a plane crash... and the rescue crews go out to search, and always come back with nothing.

We are constantly bombarded with space rocks, so none of this is *that* unusual, it's just that few people look at the sky the majority of the time (and most of Earth's surface is uninhabited/sea), so even with the larger events that occur when lost of people are about, you'll only get a few hundred people witnessing it, spread out across a few states.

Please, please, if you are going to talk about this subject, try and get the terminology right. This was not a meteorite as far as we know. Until something is found on the ground/recovered this event is best described as a bright fireball or meteor. Here is a post I made just the other day about the correct terminology.

reply to post by chetinglendalevillage


Thanks for the transcript. Sounds like many of the observers believe there was an impact. I hope the impact site is located.

Yay, another meteorite thread.

Meteorites are not hot.

Despite what we see in the movies it is a surprising fact that meteorites are not burning, or even hot when they land upon the Earth. The glowing fireballs we see in the night sky are caused by atmospheric pressure and friction. Meteors stop ablating (burning) approximately seven miles above our planet's surface, then fall in what is known as "dark flight," according to the normal pull of gravity. It is very cold at an altitude of seven miles, so meteorites cool quickly as they plummet towards the Earth. There has never been a documented case of a burning, or even hot, meteorite landing upon the Earth. If you witnessed a burning object hit the ground it may have been a damaged aircraft, fireworks, UFO, terrorist attack, or a practical joke, but it was not a meteorite.

"Follow me! I saw it land just over the next ridge."

Due to their great brightness large meteors often create a remarkable optical illusion in which it appears that they have hit the ground somewhere nearby. The glowing fireballs we see in the night sky are caused by atmospheric pressure and friction, but meteors stop ablating (burning) approximately seven miles high. If you are lucky enough to witness a bright fireball, and the flame goes out while it's directly overhead, it is possible that the meteorite will land nearby. When we see a bright shooting star apparently landing close by, what we are usually seeing is a fireball arcing away, over the horizon, still high up in the atmosphere. Due to the curvature of the Earth, the fireball may seem to hit the ground, but has in fact just moved out of our field of view and gone beyond the horizon. Because of its extreme brightness the fireball appears — to our human eyes — to be much closer than it actually is. It's something I, myself, have been fortunate enough to witness a couple of times and it's frustrating because it does look as if the meteorite landed "just over there." However, it probably landed hundreds of miles away. Another thing to consider is that when a meteorite lands near observers, those witnesses report hearing loud sonic booms, and/or "whizzing" noises. If no sound accompanied the spectacle, then the meteor was probably a great distance away. But at least you had the privilege of witnessing a real fireball!

www.aerolite.org...

[edit on 3-7-2008 by TheComte]

OK - I realize it's a longshot, especially since there's nothing here already, but.....

ANY UPDATES?

I found an example of what appears to be a meteor falling. I don't have audio turned on right now (because I'm at the office) but it would appear to be similar to what was reported on the fireball which is the topic of this thread.

www.youtube.com...

Enjoy.