Thursday July 10th, 6pm PST. National broadcast launch of garbage truck
blow up experiment on the Discovery Channel debuts ground zero from Calaveras
County. After receiving a call from the
TV show producers, Dave Vaccarezza, owner of Cal-Waste, was asked to provide a
garbage truck in their quest or question whether they could successfully blow
it up.
In Early August (2013) we
received a call, which we thought was a “goofball” call of someone who said
they were from Myth Busters.”, Dave explains. “Blow up something that costs a
few $100K?” After some thought Dave returned the call and agreed, but only
under one very meaningful condition. If
they would donate some money to the local Youth Groups in Calaveras. The idea was inspired by County Supervisor
Merita Callaway to donate to Calaveras Youth Mentoring and also by County
Supervisor Cliff Edson to donate to the Youth Center in Valley Springs. $500 to
each and Cal-Waste would match their donation as well.
Detonation in early
September 2013, was at Carson Hill Mine, the historic place southeast of Angels
camp. Dave noted, “We were scheduled for
the “blow up” when we got a call from the Myth Busters producer that someone
had leaked to the media and they needed to postpone the date.” This was done to
keep curious passerby’s away for their own safety. It was fitting then, to have a
fundraiser center from what was one of the most productive mining camps
in the state, with nearly $26 million in gold and quartz found in the area. Dave mentioned, “A few volunteers invested
their time for the event as the truck was drained of all fluids for
environmental concerns and towed from our Arnold yard, by Salazar Heavy Haul.”
Even though the truck was signed over to Myth Busters, Salazar Heavy Haul went
through the painstaking process of draining the truck
from all of its fluids.
The Myth Busters crew are
pros on every level as they approached the task of annihilating a truck weighing over 45,000lbs, 22.5 tons of
which was worth around $170,000 new. Dave states, “The truck was inoperable and
we were unable to salvage any of the parts.” The strategy was first to blow a hole in the
truck with 4lbs of C4, no problem. Then
for the main event on the next day, they positioned 75lbs of ammonia nitrate.
One nanosecond of a moment had numerous support, all under the supervision of
Calaveras Sheriffs Dept, Fire Dept, and Bomb Squad…………..BOOM!
