COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — Thousands of people were frightened Thursday afternoon after a series of explosions could be heard across the Salt Lake Valley, rattling windows and scaring pets.
Within a 20-minute time frame during the explosions, the Salt Lake Valley Emergency Communications Center said it received 1,384 total calls via 9-1-1 while the Tooele Army Depot was disposing of expired military munitions through detonations.
Tyrone Smith was sitting at home in Cottonwood Heights when he heard the booms.
“All of a sudden, boom, it rattled the whole complex,” he said. “I thought it was the new neighbors because they're moving upstairs, so I thought maybe they were dropping something.”
Walking outside, Smith realized it was some kind of detonation.
“There was nothing that was concerned, there was nothing falling out of the sky,” he said. “It wasn't an earthquake. I'm from California, so I know what an earthquake is.”
But Karissa Pascua felt real fear.
“It was scary after the second one,” she said. “I'm like, this isn't normal. I thought maybe someone was breaking in.”
Pascua’s dogs were scared, too.
“They were going crazy, they were crying,” said Pascua. “That was kind of my biggest concern too, is usually they don't make a lot of noise unless something fishy is kind of going on.”
Pascua feels the Tooele Army Depot should alert people when they have detonations planned. Officials apologized Thursday afternoon for the lack of a warning, saying they will do a better job in the future.
“I definitely think just a little warning would have been fine,” said Pascua. “Minds can go crazy.”
Smith has no issue with the military just doing its job.
“The military has reasons for doing what they're doing,” he said. “We have a major conflict that's going on everywhere, so the military can’t, ‘Oh, hey, we're going to do this and do that,’ because then you're letting everybody else know what we're doing.”
Despite being a little shook up, Smith never felt worried.
“It didn't come crashing down and everything,” said Smith. “I'm alright. The dog is okay. Everything is good.”
