On November 5, 2022, people in California, Nevada, and Oregon watched a meteorite fall. A huge fireball swept across the sky, then flared up, illuminating everything around.
However, the meteorite did not completely burn out during the passage of the dense layer of the earth’s atmosphere and its fragments fell into a residential building, which caused a strong fire as a result of which it completely burned out, reports kgns.tv.
The owner of the home — Dustin Procita — said he heard a big bang and started to smell smoke. “I went onto my porch and it was completely engulfed in flames.”
He said the area is home to multi-generational cattle farmers and ranchers. He had just fed the cows and sat on the couch listening to music when it hit his home.
He managed to save his rat terrier dog and tried to get back inside for his other family dog, but couldn’t save him. The dog died in the fire.
“I tried to go around to the windows but fire and smoke was dumping through and I couldn’t see inside,” Procita said.
Penn Valley Fire Department Capt. Josh Miller says he didn’t see the bright ball but soon heard about it from witnesses.
“I did not see what it was, but from everybody I talked to, it was a flaming ball falling from the sky and landed in that general area,” Miller said. “I had one individual tell me about it first, and like, ‘OK, I’ll put that in the back of my mind.’ But then more people – two, three, four more – started coming in and talking about it.”
At the moment, an investigation is underway to establish whether the meteorite caused the fire or whether it arose as a result of other reasons.
