Fire in the SkyS


Fireball 3

"I thought a plane hit": Another massive explosion obliterates house, this time in Connecticut - 17 September 2013


Associated Press
Tue, 17 Sep 2013 17:02 UTC
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© AP Photo/The Stamford Advocate, Lindsay PerryA firefighter walks through the burning rubble of a six-bedroom house on Webbs Hill Road in Stamford, Conn. that exploded on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013.
Stamford, Connecticut - An explosion leveled a six-bedroom house on Tuesday, scattering debris hundreds of feet away, but nobody was inside and there were no serious injuries, authorities said.

The homeowner was outside near a pool house on the property in Stamford, about 35 miles northeast of New York City, at the time of the explosion, said the town's director of public safety, Ted Jankowski. The homeowner was alert and conscious when emergency crews arrived, and he was taken to a hospital for observation.

Next-door neighbor Charlene Heffernan said she heard the blast.

"I thought a plane hit my house," Heffernan told The Stamford Advocate. "I have never heard anything so loud. My house shook from the top down."

Mayor Michael Pavia said the cause of the blast was under investigation but authorities suspected gas was involved. He said a 500-gallon propane gas tank on site was under a controlled burn Tuesday afternoon.

Comment: Reported on the same day:

Massive explosion obliterates house in Ohio and kills 2- Debris scattered up to quarter-mile away, 17 September 2013

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Fireball 2

Massive explosion obliterates house in Ohio and kills 2- Debris scattered up to quarter-mile away, 17 September 2013


Associated Press
Tue, 17 Sep 2013 16:54 UTC
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© AP Photo/The Blade, Dave ZapotoskyFirefighters douse hotspots following a house explosion Tuesday, Sept.17, 2013 in Stony Ridge, Ohio. Neighbors said the blast woke them up around 5 a.m. and that they saw flames at the ranch-style home near the village of Stony Ridge, about 15 miles south of Toledo. The explosion flattened the home and scattered pieces of it throughout the yard. The explosion left one person dead and three injured.
Stony Ridge, Ohio - An explosion leveled a home in northwest Ohio Tuesday morning, killing two people, injuring three and scattering debris up to a quarter-mile.

Investigators were looking into whether a leaking liquid propane tank near the home's attached garage sparked the blast, said Troy Township Fire Chief Randy Woodruff.

The tank was toppled over, and Woodruff said it was too soon to pinpoint the cause of the explosion.

Neighbors said the explosion woke them up around 5 a.m. and they saw flames at the ranch-style home near the village of Stony Ridge, about 15 miles south of Toledo.

One man died after being taken to a hospital, and the body of a woman was found in the rubble about six hours after the explosion.

When emergency responders arrived, four people were found outside the house, the Wood County Sheriff's Office said. Five people - all of them adults - lived in the home. Neighbors said they were a man, his wife, their two sons and a fiance.

Names of the victims were not released.

The explosion flattened the home and scattered pieces of it throughout the yard and across farm fields. Piles of insulation, mattresses, window screens and a door littered the yard. All that was left standing was a basketball hoop along the driveway.

Comment: Reported on the same day:

"I thought a plane hit": Another massive explosion obliterates house, this time in Connecticut - 17 September 2013

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Fireball 4

Multiple fireballs over U.S.: Hundreds of witnesses report fireball events from 30 states, September 22-23

Fire In The Sky News
YouTube
Mon, 23 Sep 2013 00:00 UTC
Hundreds of reports of fireballs from 30 states! Also, Japan had a fireball flurry on September 18th, 19th and 20th. Truly amazing things are happening in our skies!

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Fireball 2

Meteor that exploded over Ohio was accompanied by loud sounds


WKYC.com
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 18:38 UTC
The skies over Ohio lit up late Friday night when a meteor exploded over Columbus.


Comment: In fact, there may very well have been some damage, damage that, if connected, resulted in two fatalities:

Elderly couple dies in Ohio house fire
Peebles - A fire at a southern Ohio farmhouse has claimed the lives of an elderly couple.

Authorities say the fire broke out late Friday in Peebles, Adams County. That's about 60 miles south of Columbus.

Family members say 82-year-old Lyle Lambert and 79-year-old Jayne Lambert were killed in the fire. Their daughter Karen Lambert tells WLWT-TV the couple was married 53 years.

The state fire marshal's office is investigating.


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Fireball 2

U.S. sees another bright fireball on September 27

Deborah Byrd
EarthSky Org
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 15:44 UTC
Meteor Sightings
© American Meteor Society“Heat map” September 27, 2013 fireball sightings.
The American Meteor Society (AMS) has reported at least 373 reports of another bright fireball - a very bright meteor, likely a small chunk of natural incoming space debris - over the U.S. last night (September 27, 2013). These reports followed a similar event over approximately the same area the day before (September 26).

The AMS called the coincidence of two bright fireballs, or bright meteors, spotted over approximately the same region on consecutive days "surprising." Witnesses from Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia reported a bright light moving across the night sky on September 27 at around 11:33 p.m. local time, according to the AMS.

Fireball might sound ominous, but it is just the word astronomers use to mean bright meteor. As seen from a whole-Earth perspective, fireballs are seen often. It's unusual to have two appear on consecutive nights over the same region, however.
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Fireball 5

Friday night sky lights up with possible meteor over Ohio

Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 23:19 UTC
The Columbus area was bathed in the eerie light of an apparent exploding meteor that streaked through the sky late Friday night.

A brilliant flash of light about 11:30 p.m. prompted some people to call Columbus police to ask about its origin while officers chatted about the event over their radios. Employees at WBNS-TV (Channel 10) said they couldn't keep up with the phone calls they were getting from people who had spotted the streaking light.

Dozens of people took to Twitter to report they had seen a brilliant meteor tracing across the night sky. "Like a shooting star, but 500x brighter," one person wrote.

"I saw it in Hilliard. Sky lit up like lightning and then saw the vapor trail change from blue to purple to orange for 20 to 30 seconds," wrote another.

Others reported that the meteor and its accompanying flash of light were seen over a wide area, including south of Columbus in Hocking and Ross counties.

There also were reports of it being seen in other states in the Midwest, the East and parts of Canada.
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Fireball 2

Yet another fireball lights up early-morning sky in U.S. Midwest, American Meteor Society says September 2013 most active month since it began tracking in 2005

Meredith Rodriguez
ChicagoTribune.com
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 10:07 UTC
Many Chicagoans' daily commutes were made extraordinary Thursday morning by a fireball that flashed across the sky shortly after 6 a.m. In the seconds before the fireball disappeared, WGN-TV helicopter pilot Mike Sypien saw a burning green and red ball of light, which he described as moving faster than an airplane across the sky."My photographer was like, 'Holy cow, did you see that?' " Sypien said. "It was very vivid. It was very bright. It almost looked like somebody took a flare and threw it across our windshield."

Other news helicopter pilots who were also hovering over traffic exclaimed through their radios simultaneously, Sypien said. People across the Midwest, from Illinois to Tennessee and from Iowa across to Ohio, alerted the American Meteor Society, which received more than 400 online reports by Thursday afternoon.

Reports described the fireball as orange, yellow or white. Many wrote that it exploded as it descended. Almost all said it was like nothing they had ever seen. "I've been flying over 14 years," Sypien said. "I've never seen anything like that. You could not have missed it, I'll tell you."

This was the 13th "significant" meteor event in the United States this month, making September the most active month since the American Meteor Society began tracking them in 2005, according to Mike Hankey, a meteor observer for the society.
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© Kevin Keadle, Palatine, IllinoisPhotograph taken by Kevin Keadle of Palatine of a meteor that streaked across the dawn sky in the Midwest this morning.

Comment: The "13th significant meteor" spotted in the U.S. for September? Just scan SOTT's "Fire In The Sky" category - they are being seen in the U.S. and world wide almost daily. Something is afoot on the BBM...

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Meteor

Meteor reports centered on Indiana


TheIndyChannel.com
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:26 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Observers report early-morning meteor.

A meteor streaked through the pre-dawn sky across parts of the Midwest early Thursday morning and was fairly widely seen across much of Indiana.

The American Meteor Society had received more than 130 reports of the meteor, which appeared shortly after 7 a.m.

Many of those reports came from Indiana.

"There was definitely a bright streak behind it, but I think I saw a small flame trail," read one report on the AMS site from someone in Indianapolis.

"This is the first time I have seen such a phenomenon so close and dramatic," read another report from Pendleton. "I thought at first that as it slowed, it would impact the ground, but it burned out above the ground."

Another observer from Indiana said he also heard a sound.
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Fireball 2

Boom felt, bright light fills the sky over South Dakota

Devon Boen
The Gillette News Record
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 17:45 UTC
A surreal bright blue color illuminated the entire sky and was accompanied by a thunderous boom at about 9 p.m. Monday.

People from all parts of Campbell County can attest to witnessing the strange phenomenon that lasted only a few seconds.

Whendi Kiewel thought a plane was crashing right before her eyes as she drove her twin boys home from Rapid City, S.D. They were near Inyan Kara and the interstate exit for the Keyhole Reservoir when it happened.

"The sky just completely lit up. I couldn't figure out what it was," Kiewel said.

The sky was bright blue and it looked as though a massive shooting star was falling from the sky for about 30 seconds, Kiewel said. She, along with others, believe that the fireball was a meteorite.

"You could see it breaking apart and then it just kind of burned out," Kiewel said.

Many people heard a noise resembling loud thunder, but Kiewel and her sons only got to watch the show.

"I can't quit thinking about it," Kiewel said. "It was the most amazing thing."
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Fireball

Huge meteor flashes across Alberta sky

Tamara Elliott
Global News Canada
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 17:37 UTC

Calgary- An incredible fireball shooting across the Alberta sky has been caught on tape.

Around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, a RCMP officer was driving down the highway near Manning when he saw the bright meteor flash in front of him.

His patrol camera was recording at the time, and it was all captured on video.

A community astronomer at the Telus World of Science confirmed that the sighting was in fact a meteor.
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