BRENHAM FD RESPONDS TO REPORTED EXPLOSION AS RESIDENTS WITNESS POSSIBLE METEOR

  

Residents in and around Washington County reported hearing a loud "boom" this (Saturday) afternoon, prompting an emergency response.

The Brenham Fire Department said units were dispatched to reports of a possible explosion near FM 50 at Wiedeville Church Road, but they did not find evidence of an explosion.

Brenham Fire Chief Mark Donovan said there were multiple reports of people hearing an explosion and seeing a "bright green object with smoke trailing from it." Social media discourse indicates the noise was heard all around the area.

NASA Space Alerts is calling the object a meteor, saying it became visible 49 miles above Stagecoach, northwest of Houston, moving southeast at 35,000 mph before breaking apart 29 miles above Bammel, west of Cypress Station. It says the fragmentation of the meteor, which weighed roughly a ton and had a diameter of 3 feet, created a pressure wave that caused the booms heard in the area.