The Largest Factory Blast in America - PEPCON Disaster
321 MPH
9,057 views
On May 4, 1988, a small fire broke out at the Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada — PEPCON — a plant in Henderson that produced ammonium perchlorate, the oxidizer used in Space Shuttle rocket boosters. With the shuttle program grounded after the Challenger disaster, roughly 4,500 tons of the chemical had piled up on site in plastic drums and aluminum bins, sitting directly above a high-pressure natural gas pipeline. Within minutes the fire reached the stockpile, triggering a series of blasts that culminated in two massive explosions registering 3.0 and 3.5 on the Richter scale at seismographs hundreds of miles away, with shockwaves shattering windows across the Las Vegas Valley up to 10 miles from the plant. Two people were killed, more than 370 were injured, and the neighboring Kidd & Company marshmallow factory was flattened, in what remains the largest industrial explosion in American history. This is the story of how a routine welding job turned a desert town into a blast zone — and exposed the deadly consequences of storing rocket fuel in a residential suburb.
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The Largest Factory Blast in America - PEPCON Disaster
321 MPH
9,057 views
On May 4, 1988, a small fire broke out at the Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada — PEPCON — a plant in Henderson that produced ammonium perchlorate, the oxidizer used in Space Shuttle rocket boosters. With the shuttle program grounded after the Challenger disaster, roughly 4,500 tons of the chemical had piled up on site in plastic drums and aluminum bins, sitting directly above a high-pressure natural gas pipeline. Within minutes the fire reached the stockpile, triggering a series of blasts that culminated in two massive explosions registering 3.0 and 3.5 on the Richter scale at seismographs hundreds of miles away, with shockwaves shattering windows across the Las Vegas Valley up to 10 miles from the plant. Two people were killed, more than 370 were injured, and the neighboring Kidd & Company marshmallow factory was flattened, in what remains the largest industrial explosion in American history. This is the story of how a routine welding job turned a desert town into a blast zone — and exposed the deadly consequences of storing rocket fuel in a residential suburb.