Although terrorist and accidental industrial explosions are infrequent, engineers still need to understand how structures respond to the short-duration loads generated by such events. Previous research to measure the response of structures, subject to such loads, has often been limited to before and after measurements. Although there are sensors that can measure the transient response, such as linear voltage displacement transducers, accelerometers and laser displacement gauges, these are often expensive and limited to measuring individual points. This research identifies cheaper methods to accurately measure the transient response caused by short-duration loads. A review of sensors used to measure structural response in short-duration and structural health monitoring (SHM) scenarios, identified inertial measurement units (IMUs) as a potential alternative to traditional sensors. Although the individual IMU gyroscopes and accelerometers may be used in isolation, when combined using data fusion techniques improved accuracy is possible. IMUs have been used for vehicle navigation, and to a limited degree SHM, but minimal evidence of their use to measure the response of structures subject to short-duration loads exists. To validate their use in such environments, an MPU9250 IMU was used to monitor the response of several simple structures to various loads, from static, through dynamic to ballistic loading. In a parallel investigation, two full-bridge strain gauge arrangements were used to measure support rotation. The research proved that using data fusion to combine IMU accelerometer and gyroscope results, produced an accurate representation of the response, quantified using existing error and inequality measure criteria. It also showed that, in certain scenarios, a combination of strain gauges could be used to measure an element’s support rotation with a reasonable degree of accuracy. It was concluded that cheap sensor systems, such as IMUs and strain gauges, had the potential to accurately measure the response of structures to short-duration loads.