In a clear case of premature explosion, the city of San Diego really jumped the gun on their fireworks show.

Their annual “Big Bay Boom Firework Show,” which is supposed to last around 15-20 minutes actually wound up starting and finishing in the time it takes someone to put down their beer and get out their camera. Yes, this year the Big Bay Boom was a Big Bay Bust, lasting only about 15 seconds.

But what a glorious 15 seconds it is.

An unknown glitch caused the entire fireworks show to shoot off at once, creating four giant balls of light in the Fourth of July sky. I imagine that at least a few spectators, at least for a brief moment, recalled that whole “bombs bursting in air” thing.

Check it out below:

This YouTube uploader shares a funny story about last night as well:

I had been adjusting my camera, getting all set up to record the entire show, when all of a sudden ALL THE FIREWOKRS WENT OFF. I quickly adjusted my camera and started recording. You can hear in the video if you listen closely “It looks like a finale”. Everyone thought it was just an awesome intro for the Big Bay Boom Firework show, which is really amazing each year I watch.

There are 4 locations, Shelter Island (shown on the right), Harbor Island (shown on the left), North Embarcadero (Shown in the center) and South Embarcadero (not really seen but behind Shelter Islands Show), and are all synced to go off at the same time with the same shows. With the 20 min. Firework Show going up in a blaze 5 mins early and only lasting 30 seconds, a lot of people became very upset over what happened.

I found it funny how after the “Technical Problem” the radio station 105.7 still continued with the countdown and then still played the entire Firework soundtrack. After the 20 mins of music and no fireworks they ended up coming back saying “Woops, sorry, that was the show.”

What is a truly unfortunate event for the city of San Diego and its people turns out to be an amazing 15 seconds of pure schadenfreude for the rest of us. America, indeed.

[Image via reddit]