Bakersfield Implosion Injures Spectators (VIDEO)

Several spectators were injured, including a 43-year-old man who could lose at least one leg or maybe two, after shrapnel flew from an abandoned Bakersfield steam power plant implosion by the Pacific Gas and Electric at 6 in the morning Saturday.

Bakersfield Police said at least three people were injured in the parking lot of Lowe’s on Cofee Road, including a man facing “one obvious amputation, possibly two.”

From Rosedale Highway, where the media was kept, and where hundreds, if not thousands of spectators lined the road, the implosion seemed more like a party.

But east of Coffee Road, and just north of Jet Way, the party turned to horror when shrapnel came flying from the implosion. One man, who would not go on camera, said one minute everyone was cheering and the next you could hear screams and calls for medics.

The Bakersfield Police Department and members of the Kern County Fire Department huddled around Jet Way near a canal way where the 44-year-old man was seriously injured. Shoes and blood were still at the scene.

From The Californian’s video, shrapnel can seen flying north of the plant in slow motion.

Two vehicles, including a Bakersfield Police Department cruiser, were damaged by the shrapnel.

Several spectators were treated for serious and minor cuts at the southwest corner of the Lowe’s parking lot, where ambulances and fire trucks raced after the demolition.

The power plant closed for good in 1995 after operating from 1948 to 1985, when it went on “stand-by” status.

In 2012, a worker was killed while demolishing a tank on the property.