Loud Explosion Wakes Up San Francisco

Filed Under SF Bay Area on 2008-08-05, 23:45

It was a few minutes after 11pm and Heather and I had just parked the car at Lyon St and McAllister when there was an incredibly loud boom and a flash of light out of the corner of my eye. Just suddenly, out of the blue. The alarm for the car across the street was set off by the shock wave and quickly windows and lights started turning on in the apartment buildings. I could be completely wrong, but it felt like we were incredibly close to the source of whatever this was as there was no measurable time between the flash and the boom, and that a car alarm was set off. If this had been further away, we would have seen the flash and then heard the boom, and several car alarms would have gone off if it was capable of setting the one across the street off.

As usual, I quickly Twittered it and then jumped on Twinkle’s “Nearby” view and Twitter’s Search page to see if anyone else had heard it. A couple twitters popped up quickly. GGJeffy, rockbandit, jklmnt, dewitt, and shannonk all reported hearing it.

We briefly heard a quick siren about 5 minutes later, but not the barrage of fire trucks and cops one would expect from an explosion as large as it sounded. I still have no idea what it could be. There was no smoke, just a white flash and loud crack. There doesn’t appear to be any damage on transformers of anything around here. It happened just as a bus was passing by, so I wonder if there was some kind of crazy electrical arc since it was a white flash, no damage, and no smoke. Others are suggesting a rogue firework or stick of dynamite. I’ve set off my share of fireworks, and this was much louder than even most mortars. Other theories point to a transformer blowing up. And the weird thing was there was no echo. Aliens.. must have been.

Tagged: Explosion, Mysterious

Comments

http://0x0000.org Jonathan Moore

A month or two this happened at my house at Fulton and Lyon. It seemed to be fallowed by a series of similar explosions heading down Fulton. The blast was large enough to crack the glass on a window across the street from my house. My guess is that this is some sort of prank.

-Jonathan
http://0x0000.org Jonathan Moore

A month or two this happened at my house at Fulton and Lyon. It seemed to be fallowed by a series of similar explosions heading down Fulton. The blast was large enough to crack the glass on a window across the street from my house. My guess is that this is some sort of prank.

-Jonathan
http://www.last.fm/user/bainer bain smith

i feel like my ears are still ringing. my dog had a conniption fit, and my girlfriend *bolted* out of bed from sleep, and for a couple seconds there i was petrified. maybe it was just gavin newsom’s hairspray bottle exploding.
http://www.last.fm/user/bainer bain smith

i feel like my ears are still ringing. my dog had a conniption fit, and my girlfriend *bolted* out of bed from sleep, and for a couple seconds there i was petrified. maybe it was just gavin newsom's hairspray bottle exploding.
chris

guess it happened again guys? http://avramc.posterous.com/thunder-in-san-francisco-836-am-91209-0 curious what day and year where these earlier post? I’m thinking there might be a pattern to the madness.
chris

guess it happened again guys? http://avramc.posterous.com/thunder-in-san-fran… curious what day and year where these earlier post? I'm thinking there might be a pattern to the madness.
Katiemc177

This just happened again! about 3:10am Dec 2, 2010. My neighbors and I on Divisadero Street around the Turk intersection, were woken up by an extremely loud boom and flashing light. Car alarms were set off but no explanation! :/