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Netizens have been feverously searching Hawkins RN online as per research done on internet trends. This comes after an old viral video went viral on social media. In the same, one can see a person stepping out of their residence to observe the sky light up. The incident went on to become linked to popular Netflix show Stranger Things. Internet users have since been left wondering how the two are related.
In the video which went viral on TikTok, one can read the caption- “the whole town of Hawkins RN.” The “RN” in the end is the shortened phrase for “right now.” In the clip, one can see a man taken from a small doorbell camera. We can see him stepping out of his residence to observe a local event. One can also see the sky light up in a peculiar colour right outside of the house and the man is attempting to find out what is causing the strange emissions in the sky. He says in the video:
“Holy s**t! F**k. That’s one hell of a boom, get back in the house!”
One can also hear a car alarm going off in the neighborhood, signaling that something was surely going wrong. When the clip was reposted by other users, they went on to connect it to Stranger Things.
The Hawkins RN TikTok clip originally went viral last summer following the release of Strange Things season 4.
Is the Hawkins RN video related to the Texas city?
Despite the video seemingly claiming that the incident took place in Hawkins and connected the occurrence to what took place in the Netflix hit, the incident did not take place in the real city of Hawkins.
The city of Hawkins is also a fictional place in Indiana in Stranger Things. Despite reposted videos claiming that an explosion occurred in an area named Hawkins, it did not take place either in the fictional or real area.
Nor did the boom in the TikTok video occur in any other US city that goes by the name of Hawkins. There are nine other cities in the US with the aforementioned name in the following states - Wisconsin, Maine, Michigan, Idaho, Kentucky, Colorado, Arizona, Arkansas and Georgia.
Where is the Hawkins RN explosion video from in reality?
The clip from the TikTok video is from Port Neches, Texas in reality. On Thanksgiving night in 2019, a chemical plant pipe ruptured, causing 6,000 gallons of liquid butadiene to gush out and form a cloud. The Texas Tribune reported that the incident took place after a dangerous material was expanding in the pipe for over 100 days leading to a “popcorn polymer,” an explosion which is also a safety hazard.
Following the explosion, nearby locals were forced to evacuate their residences and classes were canceled at schools.
This is not the first time an explosion has gone viral on social media. Most recently, a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania had to deal with a blast of its own.
Hence, it is safe to say that the Hawkins RN video is not real. There were no blasts in the real or fictional cities of Hawkins. It has also been verified that the explosion took place at Port Neches.
