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Residents tell of start of San Bruno inferno
Henry Sanchez was driving home from his three kids' back-to-school night at a nearby school when he approached the intersection of Claremont and Glenview.
He looked through the windshield where just a few blocks ahead of him a flash of flame crossed the sky, followed by a deafening explosion.
His three kids were at home doing homework - and located directly on the other side of the fireball, which seemed to reach 100 feet into the sky.
He took back roads to avoid the geyser of fire, and found his kids outside on the street.
"They were terrified," he said.
Colombia: 'Giant fireball' was a meteorite
Monday, 06 September 2010, 07:56 Kirsten Begg
Colombian authorities confirmed that a "giant fireball" that fell from the sky in the Santander department, central Colombia, was a meteorite.
The Colombian media has been buzzing with eye witness accounts of the fireball, which caused a massive explosion at 3:15PM local time Sunday.
Andina.com reported that Bucaramanga Mayor Fernando Vargas confirmed that the phenomenon was a meteorite that left a crater 100 meters in diameter when it crashed into the earth in the San Joaquin municipality in Santander.
Colombian air force helicopters were commissioned to fly over the area to try to locate the source of the explosion.
The director of the University of Nariño's Astronomic Observatory, Alberto Quijano, told RCN Radio Sunday that he believed the object was a meteorite.
In rural areas of Santander, police received reports that the explosion had shattered windows in the area.
Asteroid warning: Get ready for the big one, astronauts say
Published On Sun Sep 05, 2010
Peter Rakobowchuk, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL—Canadian and American astronauts say the world should already be preparing for the big one — the asteroid that could some day strike the Earth causing death and destruction.
“You're just sticking your head in the sand if you think the world will live out its entire natural life until the end of our sun and never be hit by another big rock,” Canada's Chris Hadfield said in an interview.
“That's just foolishness. That's just ignorance.”
The Canadian Space Agency astronaut is the current president of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), which submitted a report to the United Nations outlining a detailed plan to deal with any asteroid threat.
“We're rolling the dice that the big one is not coming right away,” Hadfield warned.
Originally posted by iamsupermanv2
reply to post by GoldenFleece
This is the first place I'm hearing your account of a meteorite hitting. The going story right now is that it was a gas explosion, as you know.
What I find interesting about that story is they only have one person (that I saw) on the news talking about smelling gas and reporting it.
As homes still smoldered in a San Bruno neighborhood after a gas line ruptured and sparked a massive inferno Thursday, residents in the area said they had complained about a gas smell for weeks. People who live in the in the Crestmoore neighborhood told reporters they had complained to Pacific Gas and Electric about the smell of gas in the area and wondered why the utility had apparently not done anything about it. Tim Guiterrez, who lives in the neighborhood, said he was one of those who told PG&E about a distinct smell of gas. Guiterrez said a representative from the utility was in the neighborhood last week and told people to shut their garage doors and stay inside as they looked into the complaint. PG&E President Chris Johns said at a news conference Friday morning that they are looking into reports and will go over their records from the phone calls about the complaints.
Originally posted by davidmann
I saw no images under a google search for 'san bruno meteorite', and blogs under that heading were frozen.
Stephanie Mullen, Associated Press news editor for photos based in San Francisco, was attending children's soccer practice with her two children and husband at Crestmoor High School when she saw the blast.
"First, it was a low deep roar and everybody looked up, and we all knew something big was happening," she said.
"Then there was a huge explosion with a ball of fire that went up behind the high school several thousand feet into the sky."
Originally posted by revdrdrsunshine
something fell, and hit a gas line. Did it leave a crater?
"The crater is 40-50 feet in diameter, 15 feet deep. Complete devastation for blocks and blocks. The energy was so intense that the street has been reduced to nothing but a dirt path. The asphalt has been melted, burned off, straight to the dirt. It looks like something you'd see in Iraq or Afghanistan."