A Bus Explosion of the Good Kind

By Eric Richardson
Published: Tuesday, August 29, 2006, at 08:09AM

[Flickr]

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Given that the past few week's headlines have had two buses colliding and a pair of blue line hits, I was a little bit worried when I woke up this morning and had an email titled "Bus Explosion" waiting for me. This one was a lot more fun, though. Zach writes:

I came home earlier tonight to a posting on my gate alerting me to a pending bus explosion for Fox's 24. After dinner ($17 lobster at McCormick & Schmidt's), it looked like there was still a lot of activity at 1st and Grand. I got my camera and walked back to the intersection. After 45 minutes of milling about, they blasted the heck out of an orange MTA loaded with dummies. While I was ousted from several prime locations by security (something about flaming debree) I did end up with a fair vantage point.

The worst shots of the whole night were of Mr. Bauer. Damn my shakey hands.

You can view Zach's set of photos from the shoot over on flickr.

Update (10am): Also, eecue posted some shots from the Transformers shoot over at blogging.la. That film was shooting at 8th/Broadway on Sunday.

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Comments

Don G writes:

Eric, I hope your server doesn't go down tonight. You are going to get ton's of hits from across the Country and the world.

LAst Night GEorge Norry on Coast to Coast am had news of an explosion in Downtown Los angeles and no one knows what it was . So , I am sending this URl to them so folks can know what caused the expolosion.

# on Aug.29.2006 AT 02:50 PM

David Robinson writes:

My partner & I live in Bunker Hill Towers Condominiums, and were home when the explosion happened. For a minute or so, we were really horrified -- it looked and sounded like someone had detonated a bomb at Disney Hall. Considering the state of the world, you'd think the film company or the city would have had the foresight to alert the neighborhood ahead of time. My partner & I were both New York residents when 9/11 happened, and saw the towers fall. For a minute (until we noticed the film trucks & lights), we thought a new terrorist attack had occurred.

# on Aug.30.2006 AT 10:53 AM

David Kennedy writes:

As a resident living at ground-zero of this film shoot, I can attest that we received plenty of notification and clear information on what was coming. However, I think you raise an excellent point. Given the scale of the explosions, wider notification by the film company would have been the responsible thing to do.

That said, I can't imagine how people on the Broadway side of my building could handle the noise. I'm reasonably sure the businesses closed on our block were compensated for closing. I think some form of compensation for those residents would only be fair. For the weekend, their homes were uninhabitable.

Heads up! This activity will continue for the next two weekends.

# on Aug.30.2006 AT 12:19 PM

Eric Richardson writes:

David: You're confusing the Transformers shoot on Broadway with the 24 shoot at 1st/Grand. It was a busy weekend filming-wise, so it's hard to keep them all straight.

# on Aug.30.2006 AT 12:37 PM