Asplodey!

[tugrik]

I work on the 11th floor of a downtown hi-rise building, directly in the flight path of the local airport. We get 'buzzed' all day. In the evening it's kind of disturbing as the planes' shadows cross the main windows just about the same time the sound peaks. It's not uncommon for folks to subconsciously duck, as if the thing just narrowly missed us.

At almost the strike of noon, just as a plane was mid-pass over our building at the loudest point, suddenly the lights flickered and a scarily loud, electric screeEEEA-BRRRZZRNT! went off. All the ceiling tiles on the south-facing side of the building flashed blue. A number of people hit the floor. I just grabbed my desk and held on.

The plane passed over without incident, but a moment later a second, louder explosion was heard, with an even brighter blue flash. We all rushed the windows.

Downstairs, about 200' from the bottom of the building is the shed for the parking garage's elevator. It houses a rather huge power supply that runs the hydraulic rams. The transformer in that supply let out all its magic blue smoke in those two bursts, complete with huge electrical flashes. As it's right below us it's hard to see unless you look waaay straight down, so nobody here saw the flash directly; we only saw its light being bounced off the roof as it projected up through the windows.

Moments later a bunch of stop-or-we-throw-our-keys security guards were out there, milling about confusedly. Fire broke out of the junction box and one of them hit it with a dry-chem extinguisher. Now they've set up a perimeter and are keeping people away from the shed, but otherwise it's calm.

From the looks of it nobody was hurt and only the ancient, krufty parking elevators suffered. So I don't feel bad at all in saying that this particular 'splosion was really dang cool.

Comments

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

Electrical explosions are amazing things. By brother's an electrical contractor and once took me to where a transformer blew off the doors to this apple processing plant. The doors landed on the other side of the parking lot from the blast.

I love me some boom booms.

[punktiger.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who is scared senseless of electricity (yet I think lightning is ultra-cool), I think I would have jumped out of the building, or died of a heart attack, or let out a scream that would make people think I was just fried by an electric bolt. One of the three. I am that paranoid of electricity.

[tigrise.livejournal.com]

Pics or it didn't happen! :)

[gafennec.livejournal.com]

Better a transformer blowing than a plane crashing any day. :) That is the good type of excitement though. All sorts of interesting things happening with very little fallout.

[derechodragon.livejournal.com]

I wonder if anyone on the plane noticed, and if so, if there were concerns that the plane just did something? May have been a bit of panic there.

[the-resa.livejournal.com]

That would have scared me @#$less.
BTW "stop-or-we-throw-our-keys security guards" was both hysterically funny, and damn sad for the security guards.

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Ahh, the joys of unexpected electrical explosions and fires. ^^() Arcing is fun! Sounds like the whole thing just blew at a bad time, and cooked off. Those huge blue glows they send off tend to make for quite the bright light show.

[wingywoof.livejournal.com]

That's how Oceanic 815 happened! D:

[theassassinnox.livejournal.com]

Scary!

I'm glad nobody was hurt.

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

Oh-hey! Wanted to say that I finally have a good bit of the printable cloth in stock. :) Anything you wanted to try?

[theassassinnox.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! I have a couple of shots that I'd love to have printed.

Let me get back to you on that. *big grin*

~S

[timberwuf.livejournal.com]

Hey, cool! Glad no one was hurt.

It reminded me of an incident in downtown San Francisco in late 2003 or early 2004. A transformer under a sidewalk went BLEVE[1] and splattered burning oil everywhere. (Unfortunately, on a bystander, too. That made it not cool.) The cops went all paranoid and cordoned off the whole block and said possible terrorism and yadda yadda yadda. The fire department showed up, surveyed the scene, said, Oh, transformer BLEVE, no big deal; we know what to do.

[1] BLEVE, pronounced blevy: Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion. Kids, don't try this at home; it's extremely dangerous.

[theassassinnox.livejournal.com]

Question: Is this photo large enough and with a high enough resolution to print?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3206/2968152073_884567bb84_o.jpg

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

It's a bit small, but on cloth it can work for bannerstuff. How big are you hoping for?

[panda-pooka.livejournal.com]

Wooot! Fun with electricity AND splodey goodness! And you don't have to pretend you didn't do it! WIN!

[cuprohastes.livejournal.com]

[cracks up at "Stop or we throw our keys"]
Magic!

[wildw0lf.livejournal.com]

That would be pretty darn scary! Pleased no one got hurt!