By James Pilcher
and William A. Weathers
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Rachael Leisring, of downtown, was sitting in the Head First Sports CafÈ on Third Street Tuesday night when something like a sonic boom shook the place.

"I thought my heart was going to stop," she said.

That window-rattling boom, followed in the next few hours by several more, reverberated from Cinergy Field, and they had nothing to do with the impending implosion of the facility.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation used the 32-year-old stadium and the adjacent parking garage for training exercises involving live ammunition and explosives after nightfall, Hamilton County officials confirmed late Tuesday.

At least seven loud booms were heard from about 5:30 p.m. to 8:40 p.m., rattling windows and shaking buildings all along the riverfront.

"Basically, it's a FBI exercise," said Eric Stuckey, assistant Hamilton County administrator.

About two weeks ago the county granted the FBI permission to use soon-to-be-demolished Cinergy Field for a "few days" for testing explosives for things like "breaching a wall or door,'' Mr. Stuckey said. "It's a unique structure. It gives them a real life experience."

FBI officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.

"I was in my office in my trailer for the first three, and boy did it shake things up," said John Palmer, the project manager for Parsons Brinckerhoff, the company overseeing construction of the new $280 million Great American Ballpark adjacent to Cinergy.

Mr. Palmer said the first three explosions came from the western garage area.

"We just assumed that it was the demolition company setting off some test caps," Mr. Palmer said.

Cinergy has been the home of the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals since it opened in June, 1970, although the Bengals moved into Paul Brown Stadium in 2000. Cinergy's implosion is scheduled for 8 a.m. on Dec. 29.

Told the explosions were loud enough to cause some concern, Mr. Stuckey said, "I'm kind of surprised.''

He said there was no discussion of alerting the surrounding area to the possible noise from the explosions.

"We did not think it would be that loud. We didn't think it was high enough magnitude to necessitate that," he said. "That's part of their learning. You try to find the right amount to get the job done."

Mr. Stuckey added that since the explosions were so loud, county officials would "look into" what the FBI's further plans were at the stadium and determine whether they need to alert downtown businesses and residents.

Patrick Murphy, bartender at the Head First Sports CafÈ on Third Street, counted each of the booms, saying he thought the first one might have been a waste disposal truck moving a dumpster. But then the subsequent explosions grew louder.

"The front window was going like this," he said, shaking his hand up and back.

"At first I thought something exploded," said Darlene Boykin, of Dayton, a patron in the cafÈ.

Asked if the exercises were part of the FBI's anti-terrorism efforts, Mr. Stuckey said, "It has applications in a number of ways. It might potentially have an application there."

Mr. Stuckey said that the county did not charge the FBI anything for use of the facility, saying it was actually serving a public service "to have a well-trained law enforcement community."

"Given its place in its life-cycle, there really was no reason to charge," Mr. Stuckey said. "It would have been a different story at Paul Brown Stadium or Great American."

He also said that he didn't know whether the loud explosions would continue over the next few nights, although he said the FBI does have access to the facility for "a few more days."

E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com and bweathers@enquirer.com