Well, what an intense night it was, what with an electrical transformer exploding underground, shaking the buildings in the Glenrock meets Levering intersection. Panda and I were happily enjoying our dinners when I swear, the entire building swayed a few feet and then snapped back to its normal position. For some reason, I thought it was something like a dumpster that got rolled off the roof. It certainly sounded like it, but the movement of the building only made sense in retrospect, when we found out that it was due to an explosion. The boom was louder than the sonic boom we’d experienced back in August or so (then again, that sonic boom came from veeery far away). At first we weren’t sure what to do and I peeked out the porch to hear car alarms going off. Panda called up a coworker and then reported it to the police, who’d gotten wind of it just minutes earlier.
As Apartment Coordinator, it was his duty to make sure his residents were alright and go find out if we needed to be evacuated or anything like that. So, we headed out to see what the commotion was all about. I went straight outside to take pictures, hoping to practice my photography skills in the dark! Out on the street, people were all gathered staring at the steam (and smoke?) rising from a manhole in the ground. Let me tell the rest of the story with pictures… (click pictures for full size)
This is the scene we were greeted with not long after the explosion. The steam is rising from the manhole that got blown off.
You can see across the street all the people who gathered before we were all chased away.
The ambulance quickly found that nobody was injured, thankfully.
The ambulance soon gave way to the firetruck, which lent its hose to the efforts. Apparently there was a bit of a fire going on underground.
The police came and blocked off Levering at Midvale so cars wouldn't drive down towards the mess.
People kind of just stood around dumbfounded as they talked to each other trying to figure out what happened.
After the people were cleared, the firefighters huddled up to plan what to do.
The firetruck served a dual purpose of providing a hose and blocking off traffic.
I never saw what they used this hose for, but I guess they needed it underground to fight the fire the transformer set.
And so it wound its way down to the scene of the action.
A policeman on scene as watch guard, probably to keep pedestrians from getting too close.
I loved the backdrop of the skyline juxtaposed against the bright lights below.
Residents nearby were startled not only by the boom of the explosion, but their glass breaking!
Check out that massive crack, yikes!
The shards of glass that fell from above.
The bits that landed inside the room. Thankfully it was pretty concentrated!
The troublesome manhole, just a rectangular hole in the ground.
That's where all the trouble originated from...
Those lights were rather glaring, as they shone on the intersection.
We went back to the room after the hubbub and things were quieting down until the lights went out for us too (buildings on another street over had lost power with the blast)!
The firetruck with the bright lights seemed to have retreated and we were offered a darker view of our surroundings.
I thought it was cool how the lights faded away into near pitch-black darkness. You don't get that much in the city!
The emergency lights kept people from tripping in the dark.
The parking enforcement lady was brought out to guard this part of the road and redirect all traffic.
We went to get some glow sticks from the emergency supply closet and found some hatchets and axes!
We got the bag of glow sticks and began to distribute them.
We placed the glow sticks in strategic places in stairwells and hallways.
It looked like a news truck, but had no logo and nobody was reporting outside...
Cars not knowing what went on came down Glenrock only to run into the road block and have to turn around.
This is what Glenrock looks like when all the lights on the block are out.
One of the many buildings that found itself enveloped in darkness.
That glaring red sign that most people know about was dark for a rare occasion.
What a night it was! I have concluded that I should definitely get a tripod to go with my future DSLR… but these night shots turned out so much better than they would have on a normal point and shoot. 🙂
Check out the Daily Bruin article that came out just an hour after the event, then the one written after more information was gathered.
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