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Re: (meteorobs) 'Bizarre' fireball lights up sky, emergency lines

Thanks Michael, my sister lives there, hopefully some landed at her
place....
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Boschat <andromed@atm.dal.ca>
To: Meteorobs <meteorobs@jovian.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 1999 12:11 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) 'Bizarre' fireball lights up sky, emergency lines


> ow our newspapers handle an event!
>
> Mike
> =============================
>
> Thursday, October 28, 1999 Back The Halifax Herald Limited
>
>
> 'Bizarre' fireball lights up sky, emergency lines
>
> By Barry Dorey / Staff Reporter
>
> A spectacular fireball passed over the Maritimes on Wednesday, rattling
> windows, lighting up the night sky and sparking a deluge of
> phone calls to emergency crews.
>
> There were unconfirmed reports that pieces of meteorite struck the Oyster
> Pond area of the Eastern Shore, and northern New
> Brunswick, where a fire was reported near St-Quentin.
>
> Fire crews could not be reached, but nobody in the New Brunswick town's
> all-night gas station had heard or seen anything.
>
> The light show, described as comet-like and accompanied by sonic booms,
> had police and Rescue Co-ordination Centre officials
> scrambling after calls starting flooding in at about 9:30 p.m.
>
> Callers feared an airplane was on fire or a satellite might be
> disintegrating over the area, but those concerns were quickly discounted.
>
> Air traffic controllers in Moncton reported that two planes in the area
> saw "a fireball of some sort lasting about 12 seconds," said
> military spokesman Lt.-Cmdr. Glenn Chamberlain.
>
> But no aircraft had reported trouble and the North American Air Defence
> Command had not tracked any falling man-made debris such
> as satellites, he said.
>
> The first report was a 911 call from Liverpool shortly before 9:30 p.m.
> and calls were soon coming from Yarmouth to Cape Breton and
> as far west as Quebec.
>
> Maureen Elm of Stewiacke said the fireball appeared to pass immediately
> overhead and her daughter heard a boom to the west a few
> seconds later.
>
> "It sounded like it hit and it rattled our windows here at home," she
> said.
>
> Dave Dawe, duty manager at Halifax International Airport, said he saw the
> flash and thought it was a flare.
>
> "It was bizarre, everything lit up."
>
> Parrsboro resident Donald Lake saw a "bright yellow ball and a long tail"
> streak across the sky.
>
> "I've seen shooting stars before, but this thing was in our atmosphere."
>
> Astronomer David Lane, a professor at Saint Mary's University, said
> witnesses probably felt the shock wave of explosions when the
> meteor began fragmenting, rather than the rattle of impact.
>
> But he said a similar show over Montreal two years ago littered small
> fragments east of the city.
>
> Wednesday's display was not part of a scheduled or expected meteor shower,
> he said.
>
>
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>

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