Pat Dollard

Background:

The PEPCON plant was one of only two American producers of ammonium perchlorate, an oxidizer used in solid fuel rocket boosters, including the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters and military weapons. The other producer, Kerr-McGee, was located less than 2.4 kilometers (1.5 mi) away from the PEPCON facility, within the area that suffered some blast damage. In addition to ammonium perchlorate, the PEPCON facility also manufactured a line of pollution abatement equipment. After the Challenger Disaster on January 28, 1986, the United States government continued to contract PEPCON to produce ammonium perchlorate at pre-Challenger production levels. With the space shuttle program frozen, no government instruction dictating where to ship the product, and no mandated storage procedure or proper storage facilities for such large quantities of product, PEPCON stored almost all manufactured ammonium perchlorate on-site, in plastic drums on campus parking lots. An estimated 4000 tons of the finished product were stored at the facility at the time of the disaster.

Both the PEPCON plant and the nearby Kidd’s Marshmallow manufacturing facilities were destroyed. Damage within a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) radius was heavy, including destroyed cars, structural damage to buildings and downed power lines. Within three miles there was extensive window breakage and moderate structural damage. Many structures had damage to suspended ceilings and overhangs, windows and doors, exterior details and cracked walls.

Damage extended for a radius of up to 10 miles (16 km). Buildings were damaged throughout Henderson including more than $100,000 in damage to the main fire station and heavy structural damage to an adjacent warehouse. Hundreds of windows were shattered, doors were blown off their hinges, walls were cracked, and scores of people were injured by flying glass and debris. At Las Vegas’s McCarran International Airport seven miles (11 km) away, windows were cracked and doors were pushed open. A Boeing 737 on final approach was buffeted by the shock wave.

Later analysis of the blast damage led to an estimated equivalent of 250 tons of TNT.