The great manhole fireball photo mystery

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Mon Jan 28, 2013 6:57 pm

|expletive| done went and blowed up:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ds-newsxml

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/sewe ... hoots-fire

http://now.msn.com/omaha-sewer-fire-cau ... ugh-street

jessep28 · Post by **jessep28** » Mon Jan 28, 2013 6:58 pm

Omaha sure is pretty metal.

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:18 pm

Sure puts our vaunted String of Pearls to shame.

Post by **Brad** » Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:35 pm

iamjacobm wrote:Sure puts our vaunted String of Pearls to shame.

:like:

So that is a legit photo? Not photoshopped?

Post by **Brad** » Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:04 pm

The great manhole fireball photo mystery

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130129/N ... to-mystery

Good Story!

Post by **BRoss** » Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:52 pm

I was wondering if those were just reflections or if it was really shooting down the street like what it looks like. I'm glad someone cleared that question up!

Also, here's the post on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1 ... _manholes/. When I came across it yesterday, it was on the front page.

Omababe · Post by **Omababe** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:50 am

So?

Why was the power still obviously on when the flames were shooting out of the sewer? I would expect the whole neighborhood to be dark!

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:10 am

Omababe wrote:So?

Why was the power still obviously on when the flames were shooting out of the sewer? I would expect the whole neighborhood to be dark!

There was a brief period (maybe a couple of minutes?) between the explosion, which did not shut down the power completely, and when OPPD shut it down intentionally. The lights definitely flickered in our building a few blocks away before they went off.

Originally there was a much larger area (like out to the area of UNMC, according to OPPD's site at the time) of intentional blackout for safety reasons, I suppose.

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Sun Feb 17, 2013 7:43 pm

Brad wrote:The great manhole fireball photo mystery

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130129/N ... to-mystery

Good Story!

NYT has an article about ^That^ article. They talked highly of his person to person interactions to find the story in a digital age, then kind of pumped that newspapers are still important. Some serious exposure for Mr. Hansen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/busin ... .html?_r=0