Meteorite Destroys Warehouse In Auckland, NZ 278
vik writes "According to local media, multiple eye witnesses are reporting that a meteorite crashed into a warehouse in Auckland, New Zealand last night, setting it on fire. The warehouse roof was destroyed but no nearby buildings were damaged and there was only one minor casualty — a man who happened to be inside the building at the time. The fire service have not yet made an official announcement."
Re:Minor? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Minor? (Score:2, Informative)
Casualty \Cas"u*al*ty\, n.; pl. Casualties. [F. casualit['e],
LL. casualitas.]Any injury of the body from accident; hence, death, or
other misfortune, occasioned by an accident; as, an
unhappy casualty.
[1913 Webster]
While it's often used in the context of war, which generally means large numbers of people completely dead, maybe this guy isn't?
Summary is wrong. (Score:5, Informative)
Some people were convinced the fire was caused by what may have been a meteorite, which was seen from various parts of the upper North Island streaking across the sky just after 10 o';clock.
Several callers claim the light in the sky was very bright, and it was described by some as a blinding flash. Others said it was trailing smoke.
One man, Mike, says he saw the object crash with an exploding noise in the Ponsonby area, and reckons it could have started the fire.
To summarize, a meteorite was seen, and may have even crashed in this area. That is all.
Re:Minor? (Score:3, Informative)
My paste got cut off. Seriously.
2. one who is injured or killed in an accident: There were no casualties in the traffic accident.
3. any person, group, thing, etc., that is harmed or destroyed as a result of some act or event: Their house was a casualty of the fire.
4. a serious accident, esp. one involving bodily injury or death.
Re:Smallville, NZ? (Score:1, Informative)
Um, Auckland is a major city, with over 1 million people. Maybe not a global metropolis, but hardly a "town".
Re:Minor? (Score:5, Informative)
Casualty does NOT refer to deaths. It refers to the number of military members removed from duty due to wounds. This includes fatalities AND injuries.
Re:Minor? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's these meteorites killing our economy (Score:3, Informative)
That's interesting. I guess they will have to find a shooting star collector if there is such a thing. I though these kind of disasters made people sick and caused serious unbalance if the meteor is big enough to screw with the balance of where it hits, the people of the town and the person that owned the building probably don't think of it as a blessing though at least not yet if what you are saying will happen that someone would actually pay money for it. I guess I am a cynic, I could see geologists studying it, not buying it.
There's a good market for them on eBay. Of course, unless it's an extremely large or rate meteorite, despite with GP said, it's unlike to be worth more than the property damage. Typical meteorites look to be going from around $10-50. The fact of the matter is, meteorites aren't very rare. OTOH, there's one current bid up to over $15 million right now. eBay search [ebay.com]
Was on Mt. Eden... (Score:5, Informative)
Total BS. (Score:5, Informative)
I'm in Auckland, saw the meteor (which was awesome, BTW), and there's no way it hit anything or caused the fire. It was going totally in the wrong direction and it burned up well before the ground. In fact, it was probably so high that its trajectory would have taken it well out to sea.
This is just a classic case of people finding spurious links between unrelated events.
Re:Minor? (Score:3, Informative)
It's NOT used to mean people who died.
As has been said, a casualty in war refers to anyone who is hurt badly enough to have to be removed from duty. It includes both the dead and the injured. Even a broken leg is a casualty.
Media sources like to use the word casualty because casualty counts are always much higher and more dramatic sounding than fatalities.
Meteorites are not hot... (Score:5, Informative)
...they're often frozen on the surface when found right after the fall! It's a common myth that meteorites blazing hot. In reality, the molten surface of a meteorite has plenty of time to cool during the fall through cold atmosphere, and the interior of the meteorite remains very cold.
Re:Total BS. (Score:1, Informative)
Not joking here. Not sure of the time, but I also saw a big one off the east coast of Australia. 10pm or later. Lasted a few seconds at about 15-20 degrees with a very flat trajectory before expiring. I didn't see the origin unfortunately.
Re:So... (Score:1, Informative)
Mild humor is off topic?
Off topic is talking about tin foil in a saran wrap thread.
Please, mods...show me some slack. :(
Re:Minor? (Score:3, Informative)
A man was inside the building at the time. He was taken out and treated for a minor cut to his arm.
Oh yes, this is /.
Re:IF true...this is big news for lawyers (Score:5, Informative)
Interesting. Similar lawsuits happened in the U.S. (not necessarily a common-law country, depends on what law we're written since the split) because of hurricane Katrina.
People's homes would have water damage, but the insurance companies wouldn't pay because the people didn't have flood insurance. However, many of these people's homes didn't flood; the water got in because the roof had been torn off (or just windows had been broken) by the hurricane. And the people's insurance did cover wind damage.
In other words, flooding (uninsured loss) was directly caused by wind (insured loss), so does insurance pay? After lawsuits, the answer here was yes.
Meteorites do NOT land hot. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Minor? (Score:3, Informative)
A very good book about how democracy is horrible and corporeal punishment is awesome, indeed.
Democracy *is* horrible, it's just that all of the alternatives are so much worse that it looks good by comparison.
Re:Total BS. (Score:5, Informative)
How would you know that? Meteors that are big enough to reach the ground are seldom glowing when they do; once the upper atmosphere has slowed them down, the long fall through the lower atmosphere cools them off. They hit the ground pretty hot, but almost never glowing.
rj