Friday, June 3, 2011

Impressive Fireball at UMBC

Yesterday I was close enough to an explosion to feel the heat on
my face, 40m or so away. It was at the electrical substation just north
of the campus police station.  Not very loud, but an impressive
fireball. I have to start carrying a camera.

As a result, UMBC is closed today for lack of electricity. New media reports:
  • Transformer Explosion Knocks Out UMBC Power, http://columbia.patch.com/articles/transformer-explosion-knocks-umbc-power
  • Baltimore Sun apparently has no idea of or maybe no interest in what actually happened:   http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-umbc-power-outage-0603,0,573995.story

2 comments:

nanlmille said...

Jeff, fascinating eyewitness account. I am still waiting for the university spokespeople to acknowledge that something other than a routine "power outage" took place. In the meantime, you and the "Patch" are our only sources of info about the Thursday evening transformer explosions. I was on campus at 8:15 pm and all was tranquil at that point... Nancy Miller

J_Archie's World said...

Why should the Baltimore Sun care? There were no charred bodies, destroyed buildings, or folks trapped in piles of rubble; thus, it was a minor event at best. Besides, I am sure all of their resources were being task with covering Lady Gaga, 1-8-7s and other high content media events.