All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S07E09.Nazi.Arctic.Lights.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Worldwide,
45 billion cameras record
our daily lives,

in our hands,
in our cars and in our homes.

They capture things
that defy explanation.

[loud explosion]

[woman screams]

It really made me ask,
"What the heck's
going on here?"

[man 1] Check this out.

[narrator] Experts carry out
forensic analysis
of these unusual events.

-[loud explosion]
-Wow!

Now that's a cracker.

-[loud explosion]
-[man 2] Oh!

This doesn't make any sense.

There has to be
another explanation.

So what could it be?

[narrator] Coming up,
weird lights in the Arctic.

Whoa!

[narrator] Do they point
to a secret Nazi laboratory?

Himmler sent teams looking
for Thor's hammer,

which he believed to be
a thunder weapon.

[Craig Gottlieb]
Could these strange lights
represent some forgotten

Nazi technology
found by the Russians?

Did I see that right?

[narrator] Home improvements
poltergeist style.

We feel like it was a cry
for help to get our attention.

You're definitely
going to believe
this place is haunted.

[narrator] And...

[man speaking Cree]

Is there a tree moving?

[narrator]
When trees attack...

Just moving in a way that
trees really shouldn't move.

[narrator]
Bizarre phenomena...

Oh, my God!

[narrator] ...mysteries
caught on camera...

This is just mind-boggling.

[narrator] ...what's the truth
behind this strange evidence?

On the northern edge
of Norway,
in the Arctic Circle.

April 6th, 2019,

a man films
the nighttime horizon.

It's a beautiful scene.
Looks like a screensaver.

Beautiful mountains,
dramatic clouds.

[narrator] Suddenly...

Whoa. Hang on. What?

Whoa!
That is pretty spectacular.

[narrator] An object
seems to fall from above
and explode,

setting off
a colorful chain reaction.

There is a series of dots
that seem to kind of drip down

and create contrails over
the top layer of atmosphere
and then it happens again.

[Gottlieb] Nothing's left
but the trails.

I don't know what's going on.

[narrator] The alien-looking
imprints have no clear origin
but hover in the air.

That is wild.

I can honestly say,
in all my years
of looking up at the sky,

I have never seen anything
like this.

[David Wallace] We have
to ask ourselves,

"Who or what is creating
this light show
we're seeing in the sky?"

[narrator] This footage
was filmed two degrees
north of the Arctic Circle,

the line of latitude
on the earth beyond

which the sun doesn't set
in the summer solstice

and doesn't rise
on the winter solstice.

The sky here
often looks weird,
but not weird like this.

[Orelon Sidney] If I'm
not mistaken, those little
lights at the bottom,

those are actually
little spirals.

They're not just
flashes of light.

So they actually have
kind of a structure to them.

[narrator] Space journalist
Amy Shira Teitel

discovers the location
is close to a recent
archeological breakthrough.

[Teitel] Russian scientists
surveying the northern
Arctic islands

found something
really strange.

They found what looks like
an old wartime bunker.

And there was stuff inside,
like paperwork,
shoes, gas canisters,

and everything inside
was carrying
the Nazi insignia.

[Patrick Tomlinson]
It didn't take long
for the Russian scientists

to figure out
what they'd found,

Schatzgraber,
the treasure hunter,

the Nazi polar base
dating back
to the Second World War.

[narrator] Schatzgraber
was built right at the top
of the world,

just 650 miles
from the North Pole.

Schatzgraber is always
shrouded in mystery.

Everybody had heard about it.

No one had ever found
physical evidence

that the place
actually existed until now.

The question is,
what was it for?

[speaking German]

[narrator] Nazi high command
had a dangerous
mystical fascination

with the icy wasteland
of the north.

[Tomlinson]
Nazi mythology held that
the Aryan race descended

from a race
of Nordic supermen.

The Nazis had a history
of searching the world
for Aryan artifacts.

Himmler himself sent teams
looking for Thor's hammer.

Which he believed
to be a thunder weapon.

[thunder rumbling]

[narrator] The land
above the Arctic Circle covers

an area 50% larger
than the United States

but has a population
of less than two people
per square mile.

Hitler saw this icy frontier
as a future racial utopia

and more practically
as a commanding position

from which he could
reign terror on the lands
to the south.

One of the Nazis' greatest
technological triumphs

of the Second World War
was rocketry, the V-1,
and most importantly,

the V-2 rocket,
which was the first
real guided missile.

[narrator] And Hitler
was working on other
high tech secret weapons,

including
self-propelled super guns

and a parabolic mirror
that could be launched
into space

that could fire sunbeams
onto targets below.

[Gottlieb] Could these
strange lights
represent some forgotten

Nazi technology
found by the Russians?

[narrator] But meteorologist
Orelon Sidney

believes these
bizarre blotches of color

above the Arctic
must be linked
to the northern lights.

This nighttime display,
also known
as the Aurora Borealis,

appears in the skies
above the Arctic Circle.

[Sidney] The aurora
are charged particles
from the sun

that interact with the Earth's
magnetic field.

And those charged particles
travel down

the Earth's
magnetic field lines

and they excite oxygen atoms,
nitrogen atoms.

Observing the northern lights
from Earth, it's beautiful,
it's serene.

It's very calming.
But it's actually
an incredibly violent event.

You're actually seeing the sun
trying to kill our planet

and our atmosphere
protecting us.

Without the Earth's
magnetic field,
life simply could not exist.

[narrator] But these
northern lights
look very different.

[Teitel] The colors
aren't the same
as the Aurora.

The Aurora is very green
and these colors turn blue

and kind of get deeper blue
as they fade.

[narrator] David Wallace
runs Mississippi University's
High Voltage Laboratory.

[narrator] He wants
to determine if the colors

in the video
could have been produced
by the Aurora Borealis.

The atmosphere's constructed
of different gases, oxygen,
nitrogen, argon, helium.

So these different gases
are gonna glow

different colors
in the electromagnetic field.

[narrator] The green light
of the Aurora Borealis

is created
by charged particles
striking oxygen atoms.

We are gonna try
some argon gas

and see if we can get
a different color.

[narrator] Argon
is the third most abundant gas
in the Earth's atmosphere.

To simulate the aurora effect,

Wallace and his team
will pipe it through

a plexiglass container
housing an electric field.

I'm putting around 40,000
to 50,000 volts.

This is more than enough
to kill you very quickly.

-[narrator] Coming up...
-Let's get some voltage.

[narrator] ...do these lights
show the aurora
is going haywire...

Now, this would make
human life unsustainable
on the Earth.

[narrator] ...and does a man
have a poltergeist
in his kitchen?

There's something
in that room.

[narrator]
In the Arctic Circle,

a camera captures
a mysterious light show

that seems to show
the northern lights
going haywire.

David Wallace has set up
an experiment to see

if the processes that produce
the legendary aurora borealis

can also produce the colors
in the video.

Okay.

So I think we're ready
to give it a try.

Let's get some voltage.

Run me up to 70 KV.

All right.
Give us house lights off.

So this is beautiful.

We have the argon
flowing through the tubes.

We have the electric field
around it.

The argon giving us
a nice blue glow.

This is a very good example
of what we're seeing
in the video.

Okay. Lights on,
house and control.

[narrator] David Wallace's
experiment proves

an electromagnetic field
like Earth can create colors

similar to the spirals
at the bottom
of this weird phenomenon.

You have charged particles
falling down through
the atmosphere,

interacting with the gases
in the atmosphere,

creating the different colors.

[narrator]
But it doesn't explain
why the gases

were contorted
into these bizarre shapes.

And Wallace fears
there may be a problem

with our planet's protective
magnetic shield.

Maybe the Earth's
magnetic field is weakening,

creating concentrated areas
very similar to what you see
in the video.

[narrator] Scientists
at the European Space Agency

have found Earth's
magnetic field has weakened

by a global average
of 9% over the last 200 years.

And this could be
because a major
geological event

is about to take place.

Most people don't know this,
but on average,

the Earth's magnetic field
reverses itself
every 200,000 years or so.

And we're overdue.

[narrator] In a polar flip,

the north and south
magnetic poles switch places.

And Earth's protective shield
can drop below 10%

of its normal strength
for thousands of years.

If our magnetic field
does flip,

that will expose us to damage
from solar particles.

And it's something that
we will have to face sooner
rather than later.

[alarm blaring]

[narrator] In the 1960s,

US Air Force employee
Chan Thomas wrote a book
called The Adam and Eve Story.

Thomas claimed
the apocalyptic biblical flood
of Noah had been caused

by the poles reversing.

And he said he had evidence
that another cataclysmic

polar flip was just
around the corner.

But the book was immediately
classified by the CIA.

[car horns honking]

We don't know
when the next polar flip
will happen,

but we do know oxygen ions
find it easier to escape

Earth's atmosphere
during a polar flip,

which is bad news
for any lifeforms experiencing
an event like this.

A normal human needs
between 19% and 21%
of oxygen in the air to live.

And from
the scientific studies,

it looks like
when the polar flips happened,

it actually dropped
the oxygen level
down to around 14%.

Now, this would make
human life unsustainable
on the Earth.

[Sidney] Being somebody
who has had a tube
in their chest before,

I can tell you that
when there isn't
enough oxygen,

what actually happens
is you freeze.

You need oxygen
circulating through your blood

to metabolize
and move your muscles.

So you basically freeze
in place.

You can't move.

Could this light show
be a precursor
to an extinction event?

[narrator] David Wallace
discovers the lights

are connected
to the aurora borealis,

but he finds records
from the Andoya Space Center
just over a mile away

that show a manmade origin
for the display.

They were shooting rockets
up into the atmosphere

to study the aurora borealis
at the time.

[Tomlinson] These rockets
are releasing
glowing tracer clouds

so that scientists
can learn more
about the movement

of wind and the magnetic field
in the upper atmosphere.

It's almost like leaving
a trail of paint

that will catch on
the electric field

so that we can see
these invisible forces.

[narrator] Scientists'
increased interest

in the inner workings
of the aurora may be linked

to the looming threat posed
by Earth's weakening
electromagnetic field.

[Sidney] We live
on a knife edge.

I wish people
really understood that.

There are so many things
that could wipe us out
just like that.

[narrator]
Now, Buckinghamshire,

southeast England,

May 14th, 2021, 11:29 a.m.

It's a quiet, sunny morning
on a residential street.

Inside a house,
a couple's security camera
films their kitchen.

When slowly...

Wow, that drawer
just slid open.

Did something go flying?

[narrator] Silverware
is flying out of the drawer

as though thrown
by an invisible hand.

What the hell
just happened here?

This is so strange.

[narrator]
A utensil shoots out
and hits the window,

and then another flies out
in a different direction.

Maybe a spoon, knife,
or fork shoots
more horizontally

straight across the room,
hitting the counter
on the other side of the room.

[narrator]
Then the invisible force

seems to move across
the kitchen.

[Tony McMahon]
Oh, this is weird.

The drawer opens,
the cutlery flies out,
and the door closes by itself.

There's something
in that room.

[narrator] Coming up,
is this family living
with the dead?

We've had doors slamming
in our faces.

We constantly hear
running up and down
the stairs.

[narrator] And what
is moving these trees?

That's not blowing
in the wind.
That's gone for a walk.

[narrator] In Buckinghamshire,
England,

a homeowner captures
what seems to be

a violent poltergeist
throwing utensils
from his kitchen drawer.

Ben Hubbard
was thrilled to move

into this modern house
with his wife Lainey in 2018.

But after a series
of terrifying events,

he put cameras
in all the rooms.

Almost on a daily basis,

there would be things
happening like we've had doors
slamming in our faces.

We constantly hear
running up and down
the stairs.

[narrator] Ben feels
the cutlery throwing

is some kind of violent form
of communication.

We really feel like
it was a cry for help
to get our attention.

[narrator] Experts are baffled
by this footage

of what seems
to be a poltergeist.

These violent,
invisible spirits
have been recorded

plaguing people in their homes
for at least 2,000 years.

[Ben Nemzer]
People who believe
in residual haunting

generally believe that
something nearby
so traumatic caused an event

that just echoes
throughout time,

creating this
supernatural phenomenon
that just never stops.

So, if you believe in ghosts
and the negative energy

that violent acts
leave behind,

then you're definitely
going to believe this place
is haunted.

[narrator] Engineer
Nick Householder discovers

the research
of a British civil servant

who wanted to understand
these violent
domestic hauntings.

In the 1950s, a British man
by the name
of Guy William Lambert

was concerned
by the ever-increasing reports
of poltergeists,

and he wanted
a rational explanation

to explain
what all these sightings were.

[narrator] After studying
the locations
of over 50 paranormal cases,

Lambert suspects the answer
is hidden underground.

The idea was that
underground rivers

and turbulence inside of them
was causing structural damage

to the undersides
of these homes.

[narrator] And maps show
that nearby
there is one particular river

with some
very strange associations.

This underground river
is connected to a place

known as the Hellfire Caves.

In 1748, there's a gentleman
by the name

of Sir Francis Dashwood
from West Wycombe,

and he carves out local caves
to be a meeting space

for the legendary
Hellfire Club.

These caves were used
for the gathering
of aristocrats and nobles

to throw, some say,
pagan rituals.

[narrator] The 850-foot deep
Hellfire Caves

lead to an underground river
called the Styx,
the same name as the river

which separates the world
of the living

from the world of the dead
in Greek mythology.

A murdered maid is said
to haunt the cave's
narrow passageways.

There are reports that
these caves are haunted,

but perhaps
it's just vibrations
of the underground rivers

that's causing the noises
and actions people are seeing.

Could it be that this couple
has a river flowing
under their house

and that river is causing
all of the things
that we're seeing?

[narrator] But historian
Kenya Davis-Hayes doubts

an underground river
could cause all the activity
seen in the footage.

An underground river
could definitely
cause vibrations in a home.

It could even open a drawer.

But it doesn't explain
why cutlery would fly
across the room.

[narrator] This is not
an earthquake zone

and there are no
nearby sources
of magnetic electricity

powerful enough
to cause the metal objects
to fly like this.

But Hubbard remains convinced
the poltergeist

is an intelligent spirit
and says the haunting
keeps getting worse.

We think the cause
of this could be frustration
from our poltergeist, um,

which could explain
these big explosive actions

like knives and scissors
being thrown across a room.

Even in my experience
of what I studied
and researched for years,

I am still astounded
from time to time
by some cases.

Living in a house
where you've got
things happening all the time

is unnerving to say the least.

[narrator] Now in the forests
near Mistassini, Canada.

January 2019,

two friends trekking deep
in the Quebec wilderness

miles from any
major settlements
film their surroundings.

What a perfect winter day
to be outdoors.

[narrator]
But when they zoom in...

It looks like the tree is...

is there a tree moving?

[narrator] A 100-foot
tall tree on a distant ridge
starts to shake violently.

Look at it go.

Oh, that one's just gone.

And another one. Oh, my God.

It's like wobbling two.

Moving in a way that trees
really shouldn't move.

[narrator] Both trees
are swinging back and forth,

almost as if they're learning
to walk.

They're not falling.

They're upright
and they're moving.

[narrator] One seems to move
at least 60 feet horizontally
across the snow field.

It's not just one tree.

It's a series of trees.

That's what makes it
even more weird.

[narrator] The forest
goes calm again,
as if nothing has happened.

Then it happens again.

What's going on?
A tree can't just
uproot itself.

That's not blowing
in the wind.
That's gone for a walk.

How is this happening?

[narrator] The friends run
terrified of what
they've just seen.

These guys are noping
right out of there.
I don't blame them.

[man speaking Cree]

[narrator] Coming up,
a big discovery suggests

a First Nations legend
is coming true.

Could it be some kind of
enormous beaver

that's ripping down
these tree?

[narrator] And man
versus bird.

They're just dive-bombing him
as he walks along the street.

[narrator] Two friends run
from 100-foot trees

that seem to be
physically walking

across a remote snow field
in the 345,000 square mile

wilderness of Quebec, Canada.

So because this area
is so mountainous

and forests like,
it's more wild.

Not a lot of people
really live there and see

what's in these forests,
except for, you know,

people of First Nations,
who are more familiar
with the area.

[narrator] Historian
Marcus Harshaw recognizes

the language
the people filming
the trees are speaking.

[man speaking Cree]

The language you heard
in that clip was Cree,
a First Nations language.

The Cree have been
inhabiting and braving

the harsh conditions of Canada
for thousands of years.

[narrator] The fear
in the men's voices could be

because the weird movements
of the trees remind them
of a legendary creature.

[man speaking English]

For the Cree, the beaver
was deeply significant

to their whole
creation mythology,
the creation of the world.

[narrator] In Cree mythology,

a giant beaver
is said to be at large
in these ancient woods.

When an attempt
is made to kill it,

it unleashes
an apocalyptic flood
on the world.

While myths are fun,
some myths are based
in just a hint of reality.

We know for a fact
that about 10,000 years ago

there was a giant
beaver species, Castoroides.

This is a beaver
the size of a bear
with six-inch incisors.

It didn't build its dam
out of branches.

It would have built
its dam out of entire logs.

[narrator] The mammoth
Castoroides weighed
over 200 pounds.

Officially, it's extinct.

Could it be some kind
of enormous beaver

that's ripping down
these trees?

[narrator]
It sounds impossible,

but a recent discovery
found something is building
huge megastructures

in this wilderness,
and it's not the work
of humans.

In 2007, researchers using
satellite imagery noticed

something very unusual
in Canada.

What they found
after additional investigation

was a half mile long
beaver dam.

[Kourounis] It's almost
2,800 feet long.

That's twice the size
of the Hoover Dam.

[Lovell] So for a dam
of this size,

it's likely that it had
been there for decades.

But because of the area
being so rural and remote,

just no one had noticed it
before now.

What else is there hiding
amongst these rural areas
that we also haven't noticed?

[narrator] An eight-foot
beaver would be

a more dangerous opponent
than a bear.

People think that beavers
are cute and cuddly,

but their front incisors
never stop growing.

They're reinforced with iron.

They're actually orange
from that iron,

and they can chew through
pretty much anything.

If there's any animal
out there that can do this
to a tree, it's a beaver.

[narrator] But when
anthropologist Karen Bellinger

analyzes the way the tree
is moving,

she doesn't believe
a beaver is to blame.

I don't care
how big a beaver is,

no creature could gnaw
at a tree

in such a way that it hops
to the side rather than

falling over once
it can no longer stand.

[narrator]
Explorer George Kourounis
believes these trees'

violent motions
could be the work
of a secret criminal gang.

Is this someone
or something shaking

these trees
and ripping them down?

[narrator] Lumber prices
in Canada rocketed
from $300 per 1,000 feet

in 2020 to $1,600
a year later.

These soaring prices
have tempted criminals

into the wilderness to steal
the country's ancient trees.

[Larsen] They're doing it
in places where they think

people aren't going to notice
like the Canadian wilderness.

But people are noticing,
the people
who have lived there,

that's their home.
They notice.

People recorded this are Cree
and they're people
who come from this landscape.

I mean, they must understand,
you'd think, what's going on.

[narrator] And drugs seem
to have made
the situation even worse.

In 2019,
there was an unusual spate

of tree thefts
in British Columbia,

and authorities identified
this as coinciding

with the peak
of the opioid crisis.

Their conclusion
was that people

who were desperate for funds
were actually stealing

the trees in order
to raise money
to feed their addictions.

The problem was so bad
that one forest patrolman

observed he was seeing
new tree stumps every day.

These 120 foot
massive trees were just
disappearing overnight.

The problem
of these missing trees

became so bad
that people actually

called it
the Chainsaw Massacre.

And of course,
when you're really desperate,
you'll do anything.

[narrator]
But logging equipment is loud.

A tree ripper
that could replicate
what we see in the clip

can reach over 100 decibels.

The tree movement
in the clip is eerily silent.

The reason these trees
are making

these strange movements
remains a mystery.

Now one of these guys
are running off.

They look like they got scared
and they tried to put it away

because they had stumbled
upon something that
they did not want to see.

I would hate to think
what could have possibly

gone wrong in such
a remote area.

[narrator] Now, Shivpuri,

central India.

August 1, 2019.

A man walks barefoot
beside a dirt road,

a group of birds
watches overhead...

[Liberty Vittert] There's a
guy, he's just walking along,
wandering along the street.

Looks like there's some
small structures around,

but pretty much
the middle of nowhere.

[narrator] ...when suddenly
he comes under attack.

They're just dive-bombing him
as he walks along the street.

And they're,
they're really attacking him.

[narrator] The man swerves
out of the bird's path,

narrowly dodging
its razor-sharp beak,

then another swoops in
for an attack.

What do these birds
have against this guy?

[narrator] The man ducks
escaping this second assault.

There are other people
on the street,

but the birds
are only interested in him.

This happens every day
when he comes
out of his house.

They're... they're definitely
targeting him.

This brings a whole
new meaning to angry birds.

But I mean, it is genuinely
sort of terrifying, like,

these birds
won't leave him alone.

[narrator] Coming up,
a tragic misunderstanding

leads to an incredible act
of vengeance...

Are these birds actually
targeting this man on purpose?

Seeking their revenge?

[narrator] And what kind of
blast produces
this sickly smoke?

That yellow smoke
is completely unnerving.

It doesn't look right at all.

[narrator] In India,
a man is mercilessly targeted

by a flock of birds
who seem to have

a bizarre personal grudge
against him.

India is home
to over 900 million Hindus.

Their religion
dates back over 4,000 years.

Biologist Roland Kays
finds animal attacks
in India can be linked

to a Hindu belief
that the soul can pass
into another creature

after death and sometimes
exact revenge.

In India,
there's widespread belief

in reincarnation
and good karma and bad karma.

So in reincarnation
you can be reborn

as another human,
as an animal.

What you put out,
perhaps in this life,

is what you will get back
in your next life.

[Vittert] If we go along
with this way of thinking,

maybe the man in this footage
needs to look back
over his life and anyone

he could have wronged.

[narrator] But biologist
Kelly Price thinks

the species of bird
in the footage provides
an important clue.

What we know about crows
is they're actually
highly intelligent.

After humans and primates,

crows are believed
to be the smartest animal
on the planet.

[Davis] Crows have been known
to use tools to solve puzzles.

They use gestures
to communicate
with one another.

They even will throw
their food or prey
into the road

and wait for cars
to drive over it

so that they can get inside
because they're also
scavengers.

They live close to people
all around the world,

and we're starting to realize
that they're actually
very tuned into us.

[narrator] A University
of Washington study in 2011

found crows
can recognize human faces

and attack the ones
they don't like.

[Kays] Researchers devised
an ingenious experiment

where they would wear
full face masks,

usually of someone famous
like a president.

And so now that crow
associates that face,

you know, Ronald Reagan
or Richard Nixon

with the disturbance
at the nest,

they can go back a year later
after not having worn

that mask
around the crows at all.

And all of a sudden,
the crows would go
on high alert

and start attacking
whoever was wearing that mask.

These researchers discovered
that crows can recognize

different human faces
and can remember them
for a long time.

And they were actually
approached by the US military

to ask if they could
train crows to learn
the face of Osama bin Laden

and then send them out
to alert and try to find
where he was hiding.

[narrator] Crows can live
for up to 15 years

and they don't forget
their human enemies.

Data scientist
Liberty Vittert confirms

the man's name is Shiva
and he says he is the victim

of a tragic inter-animal
misunderstanding.

A few years ago, Shiva tried
to save a baby chick crow

from a bunch of netting
and sadly the chick died
in his hands.

It's entirely possible
that these crows believe

this man killed their baby
and they have never
forgiven him for it.

[Kays] He says the adults
have been taking it out
at him ever since.

Every time
he leaves his house,
he gets attacked by crows.

And this has been happening
for three years.

So now he has to grab
a stick just to kind of
wave them away,

because otherwise they start
to actually land
and peck at him.

And they've...
they've injured him.

[narrator] The mob of birds
seem intent on hurting Shiva,

even though he says
he's done nothing wrong.

Is there nothing
he can do to make peace?

How long is he going
to have to live with this?

[Kays] It's really remarkable
to realize that these crows

could recognize individuals
and keep track

of what kind of person
they are.

They might know all of us
and we don't even know it.

[narrator] Now Aktau,
Kazakhstan,
November 7th, 2021.

On a main road,
a CCTV camera films
the nighttime traffic.

It looks like
a pretty ordinary night.

There's cars driving
along the street.

Nothing much is happening.

[narrator] Then...

[loud explosion]

-Yikes.
-[loud explosion]

[narrator] A huge explosion
rocks the street.

-What... what happened?
-[loud explosion]

[narrator]
But this is no normal blast.

That yellow smoke
is completely unnerving.

It doesn't...
it doesn't look right at all.

Whatever happened
was extremely fast
and extremely violent.

[narrator] The noxious cloud
continues to expand,

coating the street
and choking fumes.

[Linda Rodriguez McRobbie]
This explosion
on this kind of scale,

the billowing yellow smoke,

it seems like
the kind of thing

that would destroy
not only property
but kill lots of people.

If I saw smoke like that
coming my way,
I'd get out of there.

[loud explosion]

[narrator] Coming up...

Does yellow mean danger
for the people on the street?

We need to be prepared
for the worst.

[narrator] A Kazakh city's
CCTV camera captures

a nighttime street engulfed
by a mysterious yellow blast.

Though we see
the initial explosion,

it doesn't look like
there's anything on fire
after it explodes.

There just seems to be
this giant cloud
of noxious looking gas

that looks thick
coming from the site
of whatever just happened.

[narrator] Kazakhstan
is the world's
ninth biggest country,

a former Soviet satellite
on the shores
of the Caspian Sea.

Historian Martin Morgan
discovers this arid land
hides some very dirty secrets.

[Morgan] During the old
Soviet era,

Kazakhstan was placed
where Soviet chemical weapons
were developed and tested

specifically at a place
called Pavlodar.

There were
also explosive chemicals
at this plant,

like yellow phosphorus
and nitrogen trichloride.

And these are just
the chemicals we know about.

[narrator] Data scientist
Liberty Vittert believes
this yellow smoke

is the chemical saltpeter
also known
as potassium nitrate.

Potassium nitrate
is one of the main components

in gunpowder,
"the granddaddy
of all explosives."

In its purest form,
it burns purple.

But when it's manufactured
cheaply with the addition
of salt, it burns yellow.

[narrator] Indian warlords
used potassium nitrate

as a weapon back
in the 3rd century B.C.,

as a poisonous smoke
on the battlefield.

Later, American soldiers
extracted it from the caves

in the Appalachian Mountains
and used it to attack
the British.

Today, it's used
in huge quantities
by the world militaries.

Storing large quantities
of potassium nitrate

is a tricky thing
because if it is not
stored properly,

it can explode.

In 2015, a Chinese company
found out what happens

when you store 500 tons
of potassium nitrate
the wrong way.

[loud explosion]

It wasn't pretty.

[narrator] The explosion
at the Port of Tianjin
killed more than 170 people.

We're looking
at another Tianjin,

we need to be prepared
for the worst.

[narrator] The 2015 explosion
almost completely destroyed

the port, but it didn't leave
a yellow cloud.

Kenya Davis-Hayes believes
the neon color is coming
from somewhere else.

Could it be that the smoke
was not yellow at all,

but maybe just a trick
of the streetlights
that gave it a yellow haze.

This explosion occurs
at night, and the area,

the scene is bathed
in light from streetlights,

which are producing
a yellowish hue.

This very suspicious
yellow cloud, as it turns out,

might not even be
toxic at all.

[narrator] But it was still
incredibly destructive.

Journalist
Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

studies maps of the area
and discovers the building
at the heart of the explosion

was a two-story cafe.

This explosion happened
at a cafe,

and cafes oftentimes rely
on fuel to cook.

Whether that's propane gas
or kerosene,

any of these things could be
potentially explosive.

[narrator] Kazakhs love fried
and fatty food

from daily standards
like shelpek,

a fried bread
to niche specialties

like miypalaw,
which is the brain of a sheep.

One sheep brain contains over
eight grams of flammable fat.

All it takes
is a little spark,

and it can cause
the kind of damage
we are seeing in Kazakhstan.

[narrator] And it isn't just
Kazakh kitchens
that are at risk.

Half of the home fires
in the United States
start with cooking.

And the National
Fire Protection Association

warns that oil
and grease fires
are a major problem.

They're so common,
but so lethal.

Just one spark could cause
the type of damage
we see in this footage.

[narrator] Kitchens are filled
with potentially
life-threatening hazards.

Cooking accidents
kill four million people
every year.

[loud explosion]

[narrator] But this time
there were
no major casualties.

I think the biggest miracle
here is the fact
that no one was hurt.

They say if you can't
stand the heat,

you should stay
out of the kitchen.

But how far away
do we have to be
to stay away from this?

[loud explosion]