[meteorite-list] Massive Blast Rocks UK Homes

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Oct 13 18:23:05 2004
Message-ID: <200410132223.PAA12600_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/s/133/133432_riddle_as_massive_blast_rocks_homes.html

Riddle as massive blast rocks homes
Neal Keeling
Mancester Online (United Kingdom)
October 13, 2004

A MYSTERY explosion rocked Greater Manchester today.

Police and the fire service received dozens of calls from the public
about the blast which happened at 7.30am.

But despite efforts by both services to locate the source nothing was found.

Fire service spokesman Ian Bailey said: "We had people calling from a
wide area - Chorlton, Flixton, Farnworth, and Walkden - saying they had
heard a huge explosion.

"But we have not responded to any incident which would explain the
blast. Some of the control room officers at our headquarters in
Pendlebury also heard it."

A police spokesman said: "We have not been able to find any explanation
and there is no rubble or bricks anywhere."

Measurements

The British Geological Society is investigating.Though none of their
earthquake signals were triggered, it said that it may have been too
shallow to register on their measurements.

Another possibility is that the blast could have comefrom old mine
workings. There are disused shafts in the Walkden area and at Agecroft
where a pit closed at the beginning of the 1990s.

Lynn Hall, of Sherwood Drive, Pendlebury, said: "At 7.25am this morning
I was locking the door of our house and my husband Carl was waiting for
me to come out. He said to me `Did you hear that loud bang?' He kept
mentioning it because it was so loud."

One caller to a radio station has claimed that she saw something falling
from the sky. But fire brigade spokesman Paul Duggan said: "If it had
been a meteorite we could have expected to have found a crater - which
we haven't, unless it is the middle of a golf course or a field."
Received on Wed 13 Oct 2004 06:23:01 PM PDT