WTF was that?!

October 16, 2009 11:36 PM

My fiancee and I were just now woken up by the sound of a large explosion right in our bedroom. Almost like a gunshot but not quite that loud. And I think I saw a flash of light. Both seemed to come from near the ceiling by the door. I turned on one of the lights but there's no residue I can see from anything. Nothing seems to be broken in terms of lights or circuits. Was it some kind of giant static discharge?

It scared the shit out of us and definitely isn't helping with the both of us bedridden with flu thing.

posted by kmz to science & nature (30 comments total)

Oh, other facts now that I'm thinking about it: weather outside is clear. The house was built in the 20s but there's a totally new electrical system.
posted by kmz at 11:38 PM on October 16

House settling..in a loud way?
posted by iamabot at 11:42 PM on October 16

-do you smell anything?
-do you have working smoke detectors, if you are too stuffy-nosed to smell right now?
-could it have been a tree branch, firecracker, something else outside?
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:52 PM on October 16

Could you have seen the reflection of something from outside? Such as kids setting off fireworks across the street or something.

This happens to me a few times a year when I'm sick or asleep - even though my bedroom is on the second floor of the house. There's an alley behind the house and sometimes noises/lights seem like they're in the room.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 11:57 PM on October 16

Sure it was inside?

We had a transformer or electrical wire blow right outside our bedroom window just as you describe a couple of months ago. It was bright, loud and scary. I would double check the house and then call your electrical company to check for outages.
posted by MasonDixon at 12:28 AM on October 17

Ball lightning?
posted by Abiezer at 1:06 AM on October 17

Do you have a TV in or near your bedroom? You might want to check it, in case the tube exploded or imploded or cracked or whatever it is that they might conceivably do in unusual cases... even if turned off. I'd definitely unplug my electronics, etc. around the house until you figure it out.
posted by taz at 1:06 AM on October 17

Do you have any Indian neighbours? It's Diwali right now, and they may be celebrating by setting off fireworks. Presumably they're not doing that in your bedroom, but maybe you were woken by the flash of fireworks going off outside.
posted by embrangled at 1:07 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]

Could there have been a lighter lying around in direct sunlight (or close to a source of heat)?
This happened to me once and I didn't figure it out until I found pieces of a lighter that had exploded all over the floor.
posted by juva at 3:15 AM on October 17

I suspect that, had this actually happened in your bedroom, there would HAVE to be some physical evidence.

Any "explosion" that happened occurred when you were sleeping, it "woke you up", you recall the flash as a figment of light perceived as you were sleeping...

I think it happened outside...

I suspect you live on the second floor...the firecracker, or whatever it was, was at ground level, you perceived the light at the ceiling due to the angle... I also would guess that your window is on the wall opposite your door...
posted by HuronBob at 3:58 AM on October 17

Lightning and thunder.

Even if the weather outside is clear, it could have been lightning, especially in Texas, and especially at this time of year. Here in Florida, lightning often occurs exactly that way, and unless I had an immediate reason to assume otherwise - empty wizard robes, scorch marks on the walls - I wouldn't even think to look for another explanation.

Did your neighbors hear anything?
posted by mikewas at 4:11 AM on October 17

A bird strike on a window would sound like an explosion to a sleeping person. Look at your windows. Birds fly into closed windows all the time. Just an idea.
posted by birdwatcher at 4:26 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]

A stick-up light above my kitchen sink once came unglued--and so did I!--falling with a loud crash and brilliant flash of light. Got any of those around?
posted by Carol Anne at 4:27 AM on October 17

We had something very similar a few years ago when a power line transformer blew up a few blocks away. It wasn't the one for our circuit, so we didn't have a power outage.
posted by tomwheeler at 5:17 AM on October 17

I immediately thought a transformer too. We had something similar happen to us about a year ago: huge bang and a flash.
posted by synecdoche at 6:02 AM on October 17

New electrical system...did they take out all the old knob-and tube, or at least make sure none of it was connected any more? The wires from my 1931 house leading out to the garage decided to twist in the wind and short themselves, and when I attempted to reset the breaker, "loud faraway gunshot" is the sound that was made. Check your breakers.
posted by notsnot at 6:09 AM on October 17

If you can't smell anything, it's probably a power transformer from an outside pole.

Or it's Carol-Ann trying to take you into the light. STAY AWAY FROM THE LIGHT.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:15 AM on October 17 [1 favorite]

Do you have a battery charger in the room (incl. laptop)? While charging, batteries can explode.

Call the Fire Department. They have the expertise, and will be happy to come to your house and look around. If you have kids, they will be thrilled.
posted by theora55 at 7:06 AM on October 17

Yeah, you might want to give the Fire Department a call. If something happened to a circuit in the wall, there's a small chance that it could start a fire in the wall - such a fire can smoulder for a long time before bursting into flames. The FD can take a look with thermal cameras. I think the chances of that are pretty small, and it's more likely something that came from outside, but who knows.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 8:39 AM on October 17

Seconding the transformer. We had one blow across the street a few years ago. It's like a bomb going off. The flash "near the ceiling" would be a reflection.
posted by DU at 8:42 AM on October 17

nthing transformer outside. But I would still take Salvor Hardin's advice and call someone to check it out.

I hope it's nothing serious.
posted by patheral at 9:09 AM on October 17

If you have a smoke detector, try opening it up and seeing if the 9volt inside is still intact. Sometimes one of the mini-batteries inside blows out, and it sounds like a gunshot.
posted by specialagentwebb at 10:54 AM on October 17

Thanks for all the suggestions everybody! Still nothing conclusive yet.

Our house is a single story craftsman bungalow and we have blinds down at all times, but my mind certainly could have been playing tricks with my eyes in regards to the light. And it's not like the blinds block everything out.

I talked to one of my neighbors and she said she thought she heard a series of firecracker like noises at around the same time.

We do have a TV in the bedroom but I just turned it on and it looks to be still functioning.

Smoke detectors are all still working fine; checked the batteries in the closest ones and they look OK.

No lighters or stickup lights in the house.

Checked the outside of the house and no indications of a bird strike. Also checked the circuit breakers and they're all still on.

Still need to check with the electric company about a possible blown transformer or something like that. And we'll definitely keep the fire department in mind.
posted by kmz at 11:31 AM on October 17

Our house sometimes makes incredibly loud popping noises, especially in spring and fall when there's a lot of temperature variation; it could easily be mistaken for a gunshot.
posted by ook at 11:44 AM on October 17

I would check any battery powered devices in the room. I once had an original gameboy and a plain old alkaline AA exploded in it by itself, due to the batteries being at points of discharge and one of them getting charged in reverse.

The sound was phenomenally loud, but did NOT damage the game boy, produce any smell/residue outside the gameboy, or even blow of the battery case. It was not plugged in or even turned on, so check *everything*. The battery may even appear intact, but their should be some green to blue or possibly brown crystalline residue somewhere inside the battery compartment if it went bang.

Remember, it could even be a device that still appears fully functional and you wouldn't even suspect of containing a battery. For example, a plugged-in alarm clock that has a battery back-up feature.

It could also be a capacitor. I've intentionally blown certain kinds of those before, and they can sound identical or louder to firecrackers while producing little smoke and no smell or obvious residue, depending on the type.

Capacitors of the required size are often within the power supply/power regulation circuitry of a device, and won't necessarily be mission critical to it's continued function. They could go due to all sorts of reasons, or even just be flawed or worn from months or years of dealing with noisy power signals.

Detonated capacitors will appear obvious at a glance, but not without opening up the suspected device (which may still be functional but have a seriously reduced lifespan).

One last note: I would not trust your senses testimony on the matter. From personal experience, the acoustics of a room filled with right angles combined with being in bed where one or both of your ears are very near a surface, muffled, etc. can lead to total screw ups in your brains "where did that come from" calculations. I've heard my phone ring from the opposite side of the room until I lifted my head, for instance.

It's also well documented that the human mind can create sensory illusions to go with something you really heard, especially if you're not fully awake. The flash could have been a reflection from the real culprit construed to be brighter when paired with the sound, or an illusion completely.

I'm not doubting what you heard/saw, I just know from experience that senses and memory can often be fickle before they are useful.
posted by metacollin at 3:06 PM on October 17 [1 favorite]

Seconding the capacitor theory. Especially in older electronics. Especially if there's a funny smell in the room.

If it was a PSU capacitor, the device may still work, which makes it harder to track down.
posted by Mwongozi at 4:12 PM on October 17

... I think I might be your next door neighbor-- was this about three days ago, somewhere between midnight and 2am?

I heard a similar sound, saw a flash of light that seemed to be about two feet in front of my upstairs window.

Never figured out what it was, but there were Power/Utility trucks in the neighborhood later in the day
posted by Seeba at 4:30 PM on October 17

Oops, I was wrong-- I'm in Houston, not Ft Worth.

Similar situation though.
posted by Seeba at 4:32 PM on October 17

You know, there have been some mild earthquakes in the DFW area in the past few months. Never having felt one before, we had a hard time figuring out what that big crack/bang was when it happened over the summer - thought it was a neighbor who was doing construction in his garage.

On the other hand, there wasn't any light, and the ground shook just a bit, so maybe this time it's not an earthquake. Bu I just thought I would mention the possibility.

My vote is for transformer.
posted by CathyG at 8:40 PM on October 17

Holy crap, I think we found it! I don't know how I missed it before, but there's a nightlight that my fiancee has had for years that sits in the hallway outside the bedroom and she noticed it's completely burnt out now. Presumably when it blew out the light reflected a bit into the room (or we just imagined that part). Anyway, thanks again to everybody for your suggestions.
posted by kmz at 5:52 PM on October 20