After 8 years on the air, Discovery Channel’s hit series MythBusters has finally had their first public accident during filming. While testing out a particular myth involving a cannon, a misfire occurred, which sent a cannonball flying through a nearby home. Fortunately, no one was injured.

The accident happened at 4pm on Tuesday, December 6, near the familiar Alameda County bomb range. Originally, the cannonball was supposed to pass through several barrels of water and a cinder block wall, in order to slow the projectile down. Upon misfiring, the cannon lifted and hit something that caused it to shoot over the protective hillside that surrounds the bomb range.

According to local television station KTVU, the cannonball bounced in front of a residential house, went through the front door and up through the second floor before finally exiting through the back wall. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to stop the cannonball.

After flying over an adjacent street, the cannonball bounced off of the roof of another house, and landed inside a parked minivan.

The owner of the van had this to say:

"I kind of looked inside and seen a big old cannonball. And I had just got out of the van five minutes earlier. I'm glad my kids weren't inside the van. So lucky.”

After the accident occurred, the MythBusters crew sent over a senior producer to the homes that were affected by the cannonball. As Alameda County Sheriff J.D. Nelson said, “We never even had any kind of incident, let alone anything this terrible.”

Fortunately, the family - whose home was attacked like a medieval castle - had no idea that anything had happened until the dust settled, as everyone in the home was sleeping.

Mythbusters Cannonball House Accident

While there hasn’t been any word from the MythBusters or Discovery Channel directly, Sheriff Nelson did have this to say about the situation.

"They're very sorry that this happened. And they have safety measures that are in place. They did have a misfire. And they have insurance for these kinds of things."

Despite having their first public accident (Adam Savage has stated previously that there was a serious accident that occurred in the shop that will never be spoken of), the fact that MythBusters went so many years before anything like this occurred is a testament to the care and safety that they put into the execution of their experiments.

You can view video of the destruction below (from KGO-TV):

Oh, and as for the insurance company… they knew it had to happen eventually. I just want to be in the room with the person having to make that call.

No word yet on when the new episodes of MythBusters will begin airing (or whether or not they’ll include this incident).

Oh, and if you're a fan of the show, you might be interested in this. :D

Mythbusters 'Big Blasts' DVD

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MythBusters airs Wednesdays @9pm on Discovery

Follow Anthony on Twitter @anthonyocasio

Source: KTVU