explosion of the month 4

A fire at a rocket fuel factory. Sounds nasty.



The PEPCON disaster occurred in Henderson, Nevada on May 4, 1988 at the Pacific Engineering Production Company of Nevada (PEPCON) plant. The chemical fire and subsequent explosions claimed two lives, injured 372 people, and caused an estimated $100 million of damage.

The PEPCON plant, located just outside of Las Vegas, produced ammonium perchlorate, an oxidizer used in solid fuel rocket boosters of the type used in the Space Shuttle and military weapons.

In addition to the PEPCON plant there was also a large marshmallow factory about 500 feet away. That's a lot of toasted marsmallows.

The explosions leveled the PEPCON plant and Kidd & Co marshmallow manufacturing facility. Damage within a 1.5 mile radius was severe, including destroyed cars, damage to buildings and downed power lines. Damage to windows and moderate structure damage was recorded within three miles of the incident.

The damage reached a radius of up to 10 miles, including shattered windows, doors blown off their hinges, cracked windows and injuries from flying glass and debris. At McCarran International Airport, seven miles away in Las Vegas, windows were cracked and doors were pushed open. The shock wave even buffeted a Boeing 737 on final approach.

In short, the explosion made a bit of a mess. The irony was that with the space shuttle program frozen as a result of the 1986 Challenger disaster, there was no government instruction detailing what to do with such large quantities of product. If this had not been the case, there would probably not have been the same stockpiling of the rocket fuel on site.