I would think the exclusion zone would have been bigger than that. I was in Indianapolis when they imploded Market Square Arena, and there was no way you could have gotten that close. Plus they did it at 8am on a sunday morning, so it was pretty quiet around town. Watched from a parking garage maybe a mile away, and it was definitely an earth shaking event. That one was so well publicized though, its unlikely there were many/any people that didn't know it was happening.