Residents Report ‘Explosion’ Sound Across Area

January 15, 2012

Residents across the area reported what sounded like an explosion Saturday evening, and, so far, there’s no official explanation as to what caused the noise.

NorthEscambia.com readers reported hearing the rumble in Bratt, Davisville, Walnut Hill, Enon, Atmore, Nokomis, Ala., and Molino between 5:30-5:45 p.m. Saturday. Most reported a loud, rumbling sound, and a few people reported feeling a vibration or shaking.

Emergency dispatchers in Escambia County, Ala., received a few 911 calls reporting possible explosions, including specific reports of possible explosions on McElhaney Road in Bratt and Johnson Road in Nokomis, Ala.

The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue was dispatched to the McElhaney Road area, while the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to Johnson Road. Neither department reported finding anything related to the noise.

Escambia County, Fla., 911 dispatchers did not receive any calls reporting the noise.

So far, there has been no word as to the source of the noise. Due to the holiday weekend spokespersons for area military bases were not available to determine if the noise was caused by a sonic boom.

Comments

27 Responses to “Residents Report ‘Explosion’ Sound Across Area”

  1. sue on July 18th, 2015 4:17 am

    House sitting in the nine mile road area. Heard a load booming noise around 3.30 am on saturday july 18th 2015. We are not Floridians…what the heck was that…woke us up out of a sound sleep and had the dogs bark. Expected to see a fire in the distance from a house explosion or something like that. No sirens. It wasnt raining and it was not like thunder. Very strange.

  2. T on January 16th, 2012 4:47 pm

    Good possibility of testing at Hurlburt/Eglin range. There is rising tension in the persian gulf and it would not surprise me if there isn’t training/testing systems going on. Maybe some bigger bombs being tested.

  3. B.Bunny on January 16th, 2012 11:47 am

    @ME
    It did sound like a 50 cal being shot off in the distance. That was in the Pine Forest and West Roberts area.

  4. ME on January 16th, 2012 8:32 am

    I was hunting in Walnut Hill Saturday afternoon, and it sounded like someone shooting a 50cal rifle to me. It was on the west side of Perdido River

  5. Just wonderin on January 16th, 2012 7:45 am

    Could it be the new fighter jet program that just began? Could it be seismographing in the area? Could it be hunger pains?

  6. ThingsThatGoBang on January 16th, 2012 5:52 am

    I think I heard a rumor that they (whoever they are ) are going to be bringing some oil wells back up – could they be setting off dynamite down in the ground at different places? Maybe we are all fixin to be rich…..

    I live in Atmore and have heard (at least 3 times) what I thought was thunder and rumblings from the south but no rain ever came.

    Hope William finds out more about this.

  7. B.Bunny on January 15th, 2012 11:30 pm

    @suzy beck
    I live in the same area and heard the same noises you did but didn’t put them together as something exploding. Hmmmm

  8. Rhonda on January 15th, 2012 10:05 pm

    this is starting to freak me out a little bit :/

  9. Derek Stone on January 15th, 2012 9:57 pm

    I’m gonna go with ‘meth lab.’ But I’ve heard ‘UFO crash landing’ bandied about as well.

  10. abc on January 15th, 2012 9:43 pm

    probably these gas pipeline people that you see popping up all over..no telling what their doing

  11. David Huie Green on January 15th, 2012 4:13 pm

    I didn’t hear anything in Bluff Springs

  12. Samantha Johnson on January 15th, 2012 4:03 pm

    We heard something similar to that around the Brewton area about two weeks ago. We were told that it may have been a transformer that blew up but we never heard anything else about it……could that be it?

  13. Suzi Beck on January 15th, 2012 3:03 pm

    We’re in Pensacola near Nine Mile Rd/Pine Forest and kept hearing a repitious “whooosh” sort of like if a hot air baloon was being filled & lifted. It wasn’t a boom at all. Just a whoosh, pause, whoosh, pause…It kept going over and over but it was near 12:30 am. We got in the car to try and trace where it was and it stopped within a few minutes but had been going on for about 20 before that. Don’t know if there was any relation but we could not figure out what this sound was. Keep us posted.

  14. SW on January 15th, 2012 2:01 pm

    Saw where a Russian piece of space junk was supposed to be falling to Earth. Wonder if it is orbiting and causing ‘booms’?

  15. LIZ on January 15th, 2012 12:56 pm

    I live by the tracks in Atmore, I thought sure the train had hit something and all the cars were colliding with each other. I just knew they had falling off the track. I jump up and looked out, but there was nothing there. Really strange!!

  16. kel on January 15th, 2012 11:37 am

    now that im sitting here and thinking about it this is the noise i heard when i was walking up my stairs yesterday i looked back and said what the heck is that? and im n century it was loud and rumbly

  17. S.L.B on January 15th, 2012 10:39 am

    JFA: I heard those numerous booms also 2 days ago and wondered what was going on! We live in Bratt, but somehow I missed the explosion noise everyone else heard.

  18. NGD on January 15th, 2012 9:50 am

    we heard it on cox rd. it sounded like when you throw gas on a fire, just a little louder.. my dogs started barking…

  19. Char on January 15th, 2012 9:29 am

    @B.Bunny
    It’s terrible to say but my thoughts ran along the same lines.

  20. B.Bunny on January 15th, 2012 9:12 am

    I was wondering if it could have been a meth lab explosion in the area. No one would report it if they didn’t have to.

  21. McDavid on January 15th, 2012 8:39 am

    My husband and I was watching TV. I heard the rummble and turned my head to the south window and at the same time he said what’s going on? He said the TV went black for a sec. Didn’t call anyone.

  22. lisa thompson on January 15th, 2012 7:46 am

    My husband and I heard it also just north of Bay Minette about that same time. It rumbled enough that my “hard of hearing” husband heard it. We joked that ir migjt be the neighbors fighting…

  23. JFA on January 15th, 2012 7:32 am

    I heard “booms” starting around 9pm last evening and lasting around 30 minutes. I was first alerted by my dogs. The sounds were coming from the direction of Atmore. It sounded like the test bombs they do out of Eglin. My cat and dogs were quite disturbed by the noise. On a couple of them my windows vibrated.
    Thought it might be military training with planes breaking the sound barrier causing the “booms”.

  24. Nikki & Roy on January 15th, 2012 7:29 am

    We heard/felt this as well. Please keep us updated if you find out anything. Sounded and felt like thunder, but certainly was not.

  25. ThingsThatGoBang on January 15th, 2012 7:14 am

    Just checked – no earthquake reported. In the last week Ark. and S. Carolina had small ones but nothing close to us. Could it had been a plane crash? Or some secret jet breaking the sound barrier.

  26. Jane on January 15th, 2012 6:09 am

    Earthquakes rumble, like a large truck coming down your street. But the shaking from one that made noise like that would be in the 5- 7 magnitude, and depending on the soil and ground composition it would create quite a bit of movement. I heard it and it didn’t seem like an earthquake…I thought it was a vehicle accident of some sort. Anyone else have any ideas?

  27. Capt. on January 15th, 2012 1:14 am

    maybe it was a small earthquake??