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San Diego Accidentally Sets Off All of Its Fireworks at Once

• AMANDA ERICKSON
• 11:05 AM ET
• 6 COMMENTS

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Fifteen seconds. That's how long San Diego's fireworks show lasted this year. Thanks to a technical malfunction, the city's pyrotechnics went off at the same time, creating a very dramatic show. Confused spectators waited for more (and the music played on), but there was little more. As an onlooker told CNN:

"It shook the whole building. I thought it was a bomb or someone was shooting everybody," said Teagan Hamblin, a Kansas resident who was visiting San Diego. "Car alarms, every kind of noise came on. It was really unexpected."

Here's the best video we've seen, courtesy of The Atlantic Wire:

Here's a closer perspective:

Finally, the panoramic view. Note the dude stating, "This is not supposed to happen":

Amanda Erickson is associate editor at The Atlantic Cities. All posts »