Residents of Esparto, California had their windows shattered by an explosion created as part of a Mythbusters segment designed to see whether or not it was truly possible to knock someone’s socks off. According to KCRA news, the Mythbusters crew ignited 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate about a mile outside of Esparto that resulted in an explosion that “was a lot bigger than they expected.”
Nobody in the town had been notified that Mythbusters would be filming nearby, a decision that Esparto Fire Chief Barry Burns claimed was made in the name of safety:
“Mythbusters is supposed to be a really popular show. Everybody would have been out there. We would have had to cancel it because it would have been too dangerous.”
One resident was knocked off of her couch, while a teacher at one of the local schools said, “It felt like a house blew up, straight up… We were just scrambling to find out what was going on because we got kids out on the playground.”
Mythbusters replaced the broken windows in the town the same day and, while some residents thought that either a house had exploded or a plane had crashed, the lady who got knocked off her couch said “It was fun, really fun” and that she can’t wait to see the show. Wow.