On Friday night, a bright meteorite fell in Nevada County, California and likely struck the home of Dustn Procita, causing it to catch fire and burn to the ground. (Update: NASA says no. See below.) You can see video of the meteorite in the news report above. From ABC7:
"I heard a big bang. I started to smell smoke and I went onto my porch and it was completely engulfed in flames," Procita said.
It appears a bright ball of light, which lit up the dark northern California sky around 7:30 p.m., landed in the middle of nowhere, KCRA reported.
"They said it was a meteor," Procita said when asked what he thought might have hit his house. "I've always watched meteor showers and stuff as a kid, but I definitely didn't look forward to them landing in my yard or through my roof. I did not see what it was, but from everybody I talked to — was a flaming ball falling from the sky, landed in that general area."
The Penn Valley Fire Department, along with Cal Fire, battled the flames for hours and are now investigating what started the fire in this rural area.
Update from ABC10:
NASA officials do not currently believe that any particles from any of the meteorites seen Friday touched the ground or started any fires. [William Cooke, manager of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office ] added that by the time most meteorites hit the ground in general, they are cold.
