For about 4 months, I’ve been hearing what sounds like an explosion in my neighborhood…followed by big white sparks. Of course, I’m never really looking out my window when this happens, but it’s bright enough that I’ve seen it out of the corner of my eye from my office. It started to be about once every other week…and then every week. Now it happens just about every day since it’s become warmer outside. It always happens at night…usually after 10pm.
I’ve posted on Philly Blog about it months ago after some police cars showed up down the street following one of the explosions. Someone else wrote about it again recently. No one knows what the hell this is or what is causing it. I’ve mentioned to a few of my friends. Some think I’m crazy and losing it (which I probably am), others suggested that it’s a meth lab, some think it’s the power grid down the street, or the Reading Viaduct. But no one really knows. There are other people who live in this neighborhood so surely I’m not the only one witnessing this crazy shit.
However, today on page 14 of the City Paper, a story was released about a man who actually caught on fire on June 20 on the Reading Viaduct that runs through the neighborhood because he came in contact with the live wires and 12,000 volts of electricity. It made a loud bang and sparks flew 40 feet into the air and he was running around on fire screaming for help. I highly doubt that each loud bang that I hear every night is another person getting zapped. In fact, the explosions that I’ve heard/seen aren’t even around the Reading Viaduct, but further west. There is a power grid just a block from where I live. I’m thinking that maybe the substation is emitting high energy waves through the electric lines here and causing these loud bangs/explosions. It’s quite frightening. I have power lines running right next to my window. I really hope that they don’t explode.
In the City Paper article, Steve Dufala, an artist who witnessed the whole thing happen on June 20 said, “I was like, Jesus Christ, it’s a fucking person. And that is not an image I’m ever going to forget.”
How about a bird, mouse, rat, or squirrel getting zapped?
I have thought about that, but it only seems to happen at night. I’ve never heard it during the daytime and I’m home most of the day. I don’t know if it has to do with the temperature change between day and night. It’s quite confusing.