South Salt Lake Residents Plagued By Mysterious Boom, Flash of Light

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah – It has been happening for years: a bright flash followed by a loud boom. South Salt Lake residents said it is a random but frequent occurrence.

Karl Turley has lived near 3400 West Temple for two years and in that time has heard the mysterious sound nearly 15 times.

“It is loud enough that it was explosive,” Turley said. “I’m not the only veteran who lives in this community so it can kind of shake you up when you hear it.”

The latest flash and boom happened Tuesday night and Turley’s home security cameras caught it.

“That’s when our neighborhood got shaken up where it just exploded out of nowhere, causing us to kind of go in a frenzy,” he said.

He has given the video clip to the South Salt Lake Police Department, which has been aware of the problem for years.

“Everybody is taking a look at it, trying to determine what it is,” South Salt Police Sgt. Gary Keller said. “I think that is the first concrete evidence we’ve had of this.”

Keller said the department has investigated it in the past, looking to see if it was a train decoupling or possibly fireworks. He said the department could not find any evidence of either scenario. Police have not been able to pinpoint an exact location of the noise but Turley hopes his video will at least point them in the right direction.

“I hope the flash of light can show them the direction it is coming from,” Turley said. “It’s extremely frustrating, I just hope we can get to the bottom of this.”