A cloud of white smoke and debris enveloped crowds of fleeing spectators Saturday when the Ream's Turtle landmark on Freedom Boulevard collapsed prematurely -- no one was seriously injured.

Shortly before noon, the demolition crew invited onlookers to cross the yellow tape for a chance to walk around the perimeter of the Turtle one last time before a brief ceremony. About 10 minutes to noon, bystanders heard concrete rumbling and felt the ground begin to shake. Cracks raced from the top of the dome to the base of the building, and rubble rained down.

The crowds turned and ran, but most were overtaken by a cloud of white smoke and rubble. No one was inside the building and only a few minor injuries were reported, including Joe Snyder, a Provo resident whose shirt was partly torn off by the blast of the collapse.

"We all walked up to the doorway, and I got my camera up, just about to take a picture," he said. "When all of a sudden we heard crumbling and then all of a sudden, white smoke. We turned, ran and just had rocks hitting us from everywhere."

Snyder said he remembers shopping at the building and wanted to bring his kids to see the building crumble. When the crowd was invited to take a closer look, Candace, Snyder's wife, took the children to the family car. When she saw the building cave in, she said she automatically wondered if her husband was inside the building.

"That was the scariest thing I ever saw," she said. "I was getting out of the car, saying 'Where's my husband! Where's my husband!' "

After the near mishap, the Synders joked about the incident.

"We just wanted to bring the kids down, let them see it and get a few pictures," Joe Snyder said. "We got a few more than I thought."

Bystanders said the experience seemed surreal. Collin Jensen, a 14-year-old student at Lakeridge Junior High, said he felt like he was watching a movie.

"When I saw it, I thought of 'Independence Day' and Sept. 11," he said.

Demolition crews were uncertain how easily the Turtle would go down so they punched a hole every five feet around the base of the Turtle earlier in the day, so the building would collapse on cue.

There were holes punched around three-fourths of the building when it came down.

Prove Mayor Lewis Billings said he had no idea the event would be as exciting as it had become.

"I just want to ask the Barney Group if they give a discount for the building falling halfway down on its own," he joked.

Billings also said it was remarkable no one was seriously injured, or inside the building, when it caved in.

"Powers that are supreme and significant must be with this project," he said. "We know there are a lot of good things that will come about as a result of today, and our saying goodbye to a piece of history."

Blake Barney, owner of BD Barney Construction, said the danger wasn't in the wrecking ball or the collapse of the building, the danger was in the wind, which propelled the debris at the crowd.

"We didn't take into the consideration the wind" he said. "We weakened it in the back and we were going to weaken it in the front after the ceremony, but it only took weakening it in back to bring it down."

There were safety personnel to make sure no one entered the building. Blake said a lot more people could have been hurt if the building came down when they planned because the wind propelled the debris far away from the building.

"It was actually safer to stand by the building than to stand 200 feet away, with the wind blowing," he said.

BYU professor emeritus Arnod Wilson, who helped design and construct the dome about 40 years ago, said the Turtle's unique shape made it hard to design.

"Without a computer, that was a son of a gun to figure out," he said as he watched demolition crews remove the debris.

Although the apex of the dome was only three and a half inches thick, the building had incredible stability, Wilson said. When it was first built, he rented 12-inch concrete blocks from Utah Central Block. He hired BYU students to stack the blocks on the Turtle and it supported 188,000 pounds of concrete blocks.

Ron Jensen, the Zamboni operator when the Turtle housed the ice skating rink, said he had bittersweet feelings as he watched the Turtle come down.

"A lot of memories just went down in the dirt," he said. "I had a lot of friends here, and met a lot of nice people."

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.