Exploding limo in Harvard Square
Here’s something you don’t see every day in Harvard Square. From Dowbrigade via Scripting News, also see more here and here.
By the time we got there police and fire had arrived. Traffic was shut down through the square. The fire was not a building - it was a white limousine, which had apparently exploded just as it was entering Johnson Gate, the main entrance to Harvard Yard off of Massachusetts Avenue, a mere 50 feet from the office of Harvard President Lawrence Summers.
One comment suggests this explanation:
Word on the street. Mobile crystal meth lab goes boom. Plausible given the totally “pimped out” ride (as the young people say). I wouldn’t think there would be much of a market for Crystal Meth in Harvard Yard. Maybe the dudes were just passing thru.
Whatever the reason, or lack of one, this seems like a great hook for everyone from conspiracy theorists to social commentators to fiction writers to hang a story line on. Doesn’t apparently make the grade for news reporting, though, nothing’s turning up yet a day later, but there are many blog posts with first hand photos and short notes. Apparently the official story isn’t nearly as interesting as the hypothetical ones.
Update 2005-05-01 16:30
Randy.f points out that there is no “official story” from an authoritative source yet. The photo up top is from his blog, sounds like he may follow up when there’s more info.
Update 2005-05-02 21:12
Article today in the Harvard Crimson:
FIRE IN THE YARD A limousine en route to a wedding burst into flames on Saturday afternoon in front of Johnston Gate, emitting smoke throughout Harvard Yard.
Update 2005-05-03 22:05: More from someone whose cousin was at the wedding…
Tags: noneSorry, guys, it was just a car fire. The limo in question was carrying a belated bride to her wedding at the Memorial Church in Harvard. It arrived about 30 minutes late, and the passengers exited in a hurry, accelerated by the fire they saw coming from the engine as they got out. The car exploded after everyone got out and safely away from it. It did, however, make for a lively beginning to the wedding. My cousin, a friend of the bride, was sitting in the church when it exploded.
May 1st, 2005 at 3:39 pm
Mr. Lee,
I’m being formal to avoid what must a remark so tired it doesn’t qualify as a joke, “Hi, Ho.” Anyway, may I have photo credit for the picture. I’m quite flattered that you chose to use it and would certainly give permission if you needed it. I don’t think you need my permission, since everything on Berkman Center Blogs is covered by the Creative Commons License. I don’t know if that license requires attribution, but I would appreciate it if you would. I’m not a lawyer, but I am vain and sensitive.
As for your conclusion, could we have a source for the “official story”. I haven’t seen anything in MSM. JJ Daley “did some checking”. No sources specified.
http://www.daleyblog.com/weblog/archives/2005/05/false_alarm.html#comments
Ezra Ball, was there and posted a pictures and text about it.
http://realfake.org/blog/archives/000544.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ezraball/11663559/
He doesn’t believe JJ’s rather casual dismissal either.
So we have one blogger who says ‘false alarm’ because he “did some checking” and another who is even more vague. Could it be that your anonymous source is JJ whose sources in turn are anonymous?
-r
May 1st, 2005 at 4:41 pm
Hello randy.f — Photo credit coming up, sorry about missing it on the first pass.
Thanks for the comments and pointers to the additional posts. Nothing from here to add to the “official story” status other than what I read over at daleyblog.com earlier. I’m out on the West Coast and am simply an interested observer, having spent some time there. On a second pass of reading, I see that the comment on cadence90.com also originates from jdaley, so can’t offer any better source references.
Hoping to see an actual news article by Monday, at least. I’m quite curious.