?Strange firework show last night?

If ever there was a site to share such a story this site would be it.

I live in Northeastern PA, near WilkesBarre. Last night around 9pm I was outside smoking my last cig before putting my daughter to bed. Off over the horizon, past a mountain range I see the sky flashing. I immediately thing its a storm coming and as expected 20 seconds later I hear the booms. But it was like 20 booms in rapid succession. I can recognize its not lighting. For whatever reason the thought of fireworks doesn't occur to me.

I see a series of additional flashes followed by the thunderous booms. I also start to notice different colors now too, mostly red and yellow. After the second series I walk to my neighbors and he being a military man I wanted his opinion, again sill not thinking fireworks, I'm thinking mortars. Strange I know, and I am a rational person.

When he comes out it stops for a few minutes. He tells me yeah probably fireworks and spouted a few different events that my host it this evening. At any rate, he goes back in his house without ever noticing (although he may have after the fact). After he and I went in our respective houses, I took my daughter upstairs and laid with her until she went to sleep. On this particular night she didn't fall asleep until after two and a half hours.

Well I'll have you know this "firework" show continued unabated for about 2 full hours. What fire works lasts that long? I have been to big event where thousands of dollars were spent in fact 100's of thousands and it only lasted a fraction of it. Furthermore, this booms were so loud it actually rattled my windows on several occasions and I could feel slight shakes.

This morning I wake up and check Facebook. Very first post is a friend who was baffled by the same experience living over 20 miles from me. What say you ATS? Worlds biggest firework dispaly or something else?

Possibly a military exersize. Do you know of any ranges or live firing areas in the locality? That would be my guess based on what you described.

reply to post by hotel1


lived in the area for over 15 years and never had this. As far as I know there are no major military bases in this area. There is however, the Tobyhanna Army Dpot. Beyond that nothing I can think of. Be crazy to learn the ammunition plant blew up last night! I checked local news and nothing is being reported.

I'm in Pennsylvania right now taking a 34 I didn't notice anything.

Now I'm not saying what you saw wasn't strange, but your neighbor may have been right, there's several events went on up here this weekend.

I would go with fire works, but two hours dose seem a bit extensive.

Well this may be of interest to you,a convoy of military canvassed trucks just came through the truck stop.
I wanted to ask if there was any military training exercises last night, but they wouldn't let me near them.

Probably unrelated, but curious non the less.

reply to post by terriblyvexed


How many in the convoy? Flatbeds or anything? I swear the more I think back the more I felt in a war zone lol. I would think for how dramatic it was my way and reports from even further that surely someone towards Wappwallopen, Mountain Top would have been much closer than me.

reply to post by masta12d


Four strait trucks, and I didn't think to count, but maybe 8 or 10 Jeeps and hummers.

reply to post by masta12d


I live 45min south of your location, i was up and even outside a bit around that time and didn't hear or see anything unusual. Possibly distant thunderstorm (we had rain but i didn't see any lightning), montage mountain (concert or light and sound test), military training (although that late at night?).

A few years ago my ex and I were driving south 81 going up the mountain and we could look off the ridge and see all of the valley lights, and this one lone firework on a random night, just came right up beside the guardrail from the valley below and went off. It was one of those "did that really just happen?" things, but really cool haha. Someone may have fireworks for fun or parties.

BTW what part of the military were these vehicals at the truck stop, and by chance were any UN or have UN markings? There was a post a few days ago about UN tanks and other vehicals being moved from north of us, and today is 5/19/13

In south Schuylkill County we witnessed the same show. We saw flashes and the booms that followed each were a good 10-12 seconds away. There have been firework shows all around and never have the delays been that great or that loud for where these were coming from.

At midnight on 5/16 there was a large fireball from the same direction followed by a deafening explosion. People in many towns over saw on here it.

My theory is that it is from Ft. Indiantown Gap. The place has been a new Area 51 as of late. They are running some serious exercises that are being kept hush hush. The past couple of days I have seen squadrons of apaches flying around the area as well as numerous low altitude AC130s. If you know what they are, they are generally rare to be up and around wasting fuel and they are enormous.

Something fishy is going on in PA, I know that much and I am looking to try to get to the bottom of it due to my close proximity to the Gap. I will definitely inform ATS of any revelations I may find.

I can promise you it wasn't lightning. There was a very methodical succession of flashes and explosions over and over for 2 hrs. Colors I noticed are red, yellow and from time to time I saw blue on the horizon.

What makes me think it wasn't fireworks are:

1.) length of 2hrs of constant bombing would cost 100's of thousands of dollars. (No one is spending that here not even our little casino)

2.) it was the same 20 volley flashes then 20 booms maybe 20sec later. You would think if fireworks you would get types and styles, different potency etc, this was not the case.

3.) it ended by 11pm. What firework show runs that long?

Not saying its not just saying I live right by a stadium so I see fireworks weekly, almost daily in the summer. It was not this. And what firework could be so far away that it could be seen over a horizon and had to be 20+ mi and it was deafening.

reply to post by TheNewRevolution


All that is new to me so thanks for sharing. All I know is this was just bizarre bizarre bizarre. I thought to take video but then after the neighbor mentioned fireworks I thought why bother. It wasn't until a FB friend commented the same as my thoughts and she is a coworker and not a conspiracy nut.

reply to post by TheNewRevolution

That is scary, because you know what is located at Ft Indiantown Gap..... a FEMA Camp, along with Camp Hill a tad more south. When I went to school near Harrisburg, the choppers would use the interstate for training, sometimes I'd notice one off them to side following me or someone near me, then it would go below the tree line, and reappear a mile later head on hovering overhead. That was a few years ago, but even in South Columbia County lately I have seen a few of those choppers, and even twice at night over some fields in the distance, no flashing lights, could barely hear them, but could see the shape of an military style chopper against the dimmly light sky.

So if it is def not fireworks, I'm assuming military exercise. I'll keep my eyes and ears open after work the next few nights.

TheNewRevolution, describe this fireball you witnessed. Was it like a space rock, or missile, or possibly a morter?

thats funny i had a dream early this morning and a childs voice said "daddy the gun shots are scaring me" and a male voice replied "its not gunshots thats only the fireworks honey"

reply to post by SixX18


No nothing interesting like that just army, maybe just reserves I'm not real knowledgeable with that stuff, but UN would have stuck out to me I'm sure.

reply to post by SixX18


I have witnessed a burning meteorite, and it was not of the sort I've seen before. Prior to it happening there was about 10-15 minutes of red flashes in the distance towards the Gap. My friend and I assumed they were heat flashes, but we found it odd because it wasn't hot at all and we only really saw them in the summer months.

After that the sky suddenly lit up a bright white and from that direction we just caught the sight of a fireball. It took literally 7 full seconds before a loud BOOM was heard that sounded very much like artillery hitting a target.

We immediately go in the vehicle and scouted around but found nothing. It was only the next day that others informed us that it was above the Gap that it happened and no one had any further information. That Gap is roughly 12-15 miles from our location.

Originally posted by terriblyvexed
reply to post by SixX18

 

No nothing interesting like that just army, maybe just reserves I'm not real knowledgeable with that stuff, but UN would have stuck out to me I'm sure.

Well at least it isn't the UN. Those reports were not from a reliable source of the UN equipment being moved, not sure if it was a hoax or they blew it out of proportion. I wouldn't be surprised if they had some vehicles in the states, and they would be moved around sometimes, as we do to our equipment.

Also the Guard trains 1 weekend a month so that would make sense.

Originally posted by TheNewRevolution
reply to post by SixX18

 

I have witnessed a burning meteorite, and it was not of the sort I've seen before. Prior to it happening there was about 10-15 minutes of red flashes in the distance towards the Gap. My friend and I assumed they were heat flashes, but we found it odd because it wasn't hot at all and we only really saw them in the summer months.

After that the sky suddenly lit up a bright white and from that direction we just caught the sight of a fireball. It took literally 7 full seconds before a loud BOOM was heard that sounded very much like artillery hitting a target.

That's interesting, I wonder what kind of test or drill could do that. I don't think they would be doing live air to ground drills, but maybe they do have a test site. A few months ago someone in my area found an old bomb that was still live, from WWII and the reserves from a MD base brought it to a quarry near by and detonated it without telling anyone. People calling 911 were informed what had happened. There is a lot of no mans land out in those mountains.

OP, would you be able to guesstimate if Ft Indiantown Gap is too far away to see or hear? I know it is down 81 about 45-60min, and are you on the mountain or in the valley?

For the fire ball witness, check this out.

4 Fireballs with Same Heading in Last 24 hours

reply to post by masta12d


last year, 2012 a bunch of firework companies got together and were hosting a national tour so to speak of their fireworks.
it lasted most of the night and the booms were heard twenty miles away in my hometown. this was in Indiana, USA so you may have unwittingly heard one of there demonstrations.

reply to post by SixX18


i wonder if those might be artillery flares shot from a howitzer?

reply to post by ronthealien


I think your first post makes the most sense. I learned today that there was a firework show (which I knew about) but what makes it more plausible now is that they were dontated fireworks. From my understand, multiple sources. So they may have received way more than they needed and simply went to town. There hasn't been much chatter locally about it other than intially so maybe it was nothing. *shrug*