I, too, was in EPCOT at the time of the "event," and can confirm XS's report. In fact, I was in the Friendship boat that is in XS's picture at the time of the explosion. It was about 4:45 PM. A loud single explosion (boom) was heard with very little, if any, light flash associated with it. A piece of metal plating about 3 feet x 3 feet shot into the air about 25 feet up and landed in the water about 50 feet away, near one of the other barges. There was no fire on the barge and as soon as the original ball of smoke dissipated, there was no more smoke originating from the barge. Immediately after the explosion three work boats easch holding about 3 pyotechies raced to the barge. Some of the pyrotechies appeared to be talking on 2-way radios while examining the barge. It didn't appear that anyone was on the barge at the time, and the closest pyrotech boat was about 25 feet away. Over the next hour or so, no other pyrotech or emergency boats entered the area and the original ones stayed in the area (i.e. no one was pulled from the water onto a boat that raced away to get medical aid and no other boat raced in to give medical aid or do rescue work). Our Friendship launch continued on its original way and the two CMs comments and behavior indicated that the explosion was definately out of the ordinary. Illuminations was run that night.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope that sheads some light on things.
