In an event hosted by the and the reality series, MythBusters, Dublin residents spoke out at a public forum on Saturday about a wayward cannonball that smashed through a home earlier this month.
The forum, held at the sheriff's facility on Broder Boulevard, was attended by , City Manager Joni Pattillo, Economic Development Director Linda Smith, Sheriff Gregory Ahern, Dublin Police Chief Tom McCarthy, Alameda County Sheriff’s command staff and Bomb Squad, Mythbusters Executive Producer Steve Cheskin along with show hosts Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, Tory Belleci, Grant Imahara and Kari Byron and about 50 residents.
One Dublin resident voiced her concern about the range being used for things other than its original purpose. Ahern assured her they are reviewing their safety protocol.
Two other citizens voiced their support of the MythBusters presence in Dublin. They said they appreciated the show's financial contributions to the city and for helping make the city of Dublin known to the rest of the country.
Cheskin told the gathering they take safety seriously on the show. He assured residents that MythBusters will “Never shoot that cannon again [in that location].”
He cited the show’s accident-free track record of more than 2,500 experiments and 800 myths busted during their tenure with Alameda County.
On Dec. 6, the crew was conducting an exercise involving shooting a homemade cannon.
Before using the homemade cannon, which had been used before for other experiments, two test shots were fired through a real cannon in order to make calculations needed to shoot the homemade cannon.
Alameda County sheriff's officials were present turing the test firings but were not on site when the accident occurred. The theory being tested had to do with firing objects other than cannonballs through the homemade cannon.
Using a 5-pound cannonball, they shot the homemade cannon. The round missed the water barrels set up to catch the projectile. The cannonball continued over a cinderblock wall and bounced twice after hitting the hillside, which is designed to absorb projectile impacts.
However, the hillside, which may have been too dry from lack of rain, didn't stop the cannonball. Instead it bounced off and into a nearby neighborhood, striking a house. The homeowners were not injured. It then continued across Tassajara Road, smashing through a minivan window and hitting the dashboard.
Ahern said his first reaction was to find out if anyone had been hurt and assured the attending citizens this would never happen again. He has closed the range, which has been used for bomb training since 1973, pending the outcome of the investigation.
MythBusters has contracted with the Alameda County Sheriff's department for several years now and their contract, along with other contractors who rent the bomb range and shooting range, generates revenue for the city and county.
Ahern says those revenues help offset the taxpayer burden for the city and county.
After the forum, MythBusters hosted a lunch catered by and met with residents to answer questions. The Alameda County sheriff's department had a static display of their bomb equipment available for the citizens to see and had bomb squad deputies available to answer questions. The bomb squad responds to more than 200 calls a year.
