A Brief History of: The PEPCON Disaster (Short Documentary)

Manufacture and storage of dangerous chemicals is a recipe for disaster if done incorrectly.
And this would be the case in 1988 when a fire at the Pepcon facility in Nevada, would affect an area of roughly a 10 mile radius.
The disaster was a strange side effect of the Challenger disaster after which NASA suspended all rocket Launches.
Leaving large quantities of rocket fuel to store, which was the PEPCON facility.
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Sources:
apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltex...
sma.nasa.gov/docs/defa1ult-so...
sma.nasa.gov/docs/default-sou...
www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/p...
cdn.ymaws.com/www.sfpe.org/re...
www.interfire.org/res_file/pd...
• Pepcon Explosion First...
ndep.nv.gov/environmental-cle...
By Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA - Henderson, Nevada, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Like, Comment, Share and subscribe so I can earn some money to clean my Laptop screen

[@trashman191]

ok !!!

[@alwayslate1336]

I’ll send you screen clean!

[@GSimpsonOAM]

Have you done the RAF Fauld explosion?

[@diegoviniciomejiaquesada4754]

Man, do you know about the "Costarican's cobalt bomb" irradiation incident?

[@afrog2666]

Spit on it and call it names! Like, "you`re a filthy toaster, and if you don`t clean yourself you can find someone new... IN A DUMPSTER!" That should sort things out ;)

[@123cyr]

Just realized this is what REPCONN headquarters in Fallout NV is a reference to

[@HugoEckener127]

Ahh yes! I didn't realize that! It's been over a decade and there are still references and hidden bits of New Vegas that I'm discovering.

[@secondaryemail6564]

I had a gut feeling this was related to Fallout in a way glad I wasn’t wrong!

[@romero-kyun2681]

it's the first thing that came to mind when I heard Pepcon

[@bynrdskynrd]

But did Jason Bright make it out?

[@phatcyclist]

When I saw this video come up, New Vegas was the first thing I thought of.

[@Vanilla0729]

"Which is around here on a map." I always expect to see a giant foam finger point at a 12cm diameter globe.

[@jamestheotherone742]

Well, if there is ever a Plainly Difficult video of when a giant meteor impacted the Earth...

[@77thTrombone]

@@jamestheotherone742 that would be near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay (Virginia, USA,) actually. Tektite fields in Georgia (again, USA) and Texas are explained by this event.

[@stonegiant4]

As a welder, setting things on fire accidentally is par for the corse. Hell, typically it's ME who's on fire. That's why we only wear organic fibers/leather. Elsewise when (not if) we catch fire, synthetic fibers would melt to the skin and cause disfiguring burns.

[@allangibson8494]

Massive problem when oxy cutting inside pressure vessels and tanks - lighting a cigarette afterwards can be a spectacular mistake with oxygen saturated clothes.

[@xaenon]

@@allangibson8494 One more reason to not smoke, I'd say....

[@foreverpinkf.7603]

Yes these wounds are pretty ugly and hard to cure because you have to remove the molten plastic together with the skin.

[@SheepInACart]

As a fellow boilermaker, honestly I've never liked that excuse.. when these guys set the walls on fire, hadn't swept away residue of what they knew was a fire risk, didn't clear or dampen surrounding area ect, they where working sloppy. Sure on a normal construction site where there was only the concrete and steel framing up already you might not bother, but when your working in an operating chemical warehouse, its negligent. Even if it didn't get out of control and cause an explosion, it takes longer to replace the fiberglass panels than sweep the dust and lean a sacrificial plate up against them to catch sparks/UV, instead of just damaging everything nearby and claiming its par for the course.

[@foreverpinkf.7603]

@@SheepInACart You are right.

[@elsaprahl502]

2:10 The marshmallow factory detail was a nice touch.

[@garethevans9789]

(It did soften the blow.)

[@malcolmx2461]

Extra calorific value

[@mcblaggart8565]

If I recall correctly it actually caused a nation-wide marshmallow shortage.

[@WeldinMike27]

Explosion induced fluffiness

[@matthewday7565]

Were the marshmallows toasted?

[@DocNo27]

I was in high school on the other side of the valley when it happened. I was in German class and we had the windows open as it was a nice day. We didn't really hear or see anything since we were about 15 miles away, but rather felt a low thud followed by the curtains in the window first going in and then out just like you see the trees bending in videos of nuclear explosions. Knowing the nuclear test site is just north of Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base was also very close, it was a little odd to say the least. It utterly shut down Henderson and Boulder Highway and we ended up having to take quite a detour just to get home. A friend that lived in Henderson ended up staying the night with us since his parents couldn't get anywhere in the chaos that night. It was very surreal indeed. There were nationwide glass shortages for months afterwards and to this day you need to be careful buying any houses in Henderson that were standing when the explosion happened - many were knocked off their foundations and repaired poorly. You can still get stuck with a ticking time bomb if you aren't careful :(

[@killbot1974]

You went to Western?

[@DocNo27]

@@killbot1974 Nope - private school. But good guess :)

[@DoctorTauri]

@@DocNo27 Bishop Gorman?

[@faethore8541]

I was going to Kit Carson Jr. High at the time..but I was ditching that day. =D

[@DaveHanson]

I felt both pressure waves from where I was working on Industrial Rd at the time.

[@CynicalHistorian]

To this day, kids going to school in the Vegas Valley still do shelter in place drills. It's kind of a joke, since all teachers do is put a piece of tape on the door and continue what they were doing, but that is a remnant of the PEPCON explosion

[@Jammermaker]

I remember doing those in school and thinking that this seems pointless

[@NinjaAgnostic]

If Cypher is here, then I know I'm in the right place.

[@TAKIZAWAYAMASHITA]

that was a taste of what the cold war was with duck and cover as nuclear attack was a real fear. the pepcon explosion was a taste of what a nuke can do and as a result they still do the drills because they know the real shit is 10000x worse

[@colefreer]

As someone born and raised in Vegas I had no idea PEPCON was the reason why we did that

[@Jammermaker]

@@colefreer I didn’t realize it was the reason we did it either.

[@Snapper314]

Anyone who hasn't actually seen the actual videos of this massive explosion REALLY should. It is amazing! A film crew was a few miles away and they captured everything.

[@Penguin_of_Death]

It wasn't a 'film crew', just a maintenance crew working at a nearby TV tower

[@dx1450]

Yes, the first explosion happens and you're like, "whoa, that must have been huge." And then the second explosion comes...

[@dx1450]

BTW, here's the footage: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXi2qWhqeNCKqbM

[@awhahoo]

@@dx1450 Thanks joe

[@Skvid]

Explosion effecting 747's final really surprised me. Aircraft being effected by disasters on the ground is rarely mentioned

[@DoctorTauri]

That’s insane!. Just realized the location was a few feet away from where I used to live. Would of never known something of that magnitude happened decades ago! It’s all now luxury apartments lol

[@Sn4k3f1st]

weird flex

[@bradlemmond]

@@Sn4k3f1st but ok

[@DoctorTauri]

@@Sn4k3f1st 😂

[@fredferd965]

My supervisor lived in Henderson in an apartment near the blast. His garage door was blown off. His neighbor lady had a parakeet in a cage hanging on a patio facing towards the blast at the time. The bird was literally blown through the bars of its cage, sliced to pieces. We never found out how THAT turned out, but we guessed that she'd be in therapy for a while.

[@NyuuMikuru1]

Felt that shockwave at Nellis and Lake Mead Blvd. Twice. My mom thought a gas station at the corner blew up.

[@dr.rotwang]

Today's lesson in chemistry. The AP stored at the plant was primarily stored in aluminum tote bins and rubberized poly drums. One of the standard formulas for solid rocket propellant is 70% by weight AP, 15% by weight powdered aluminum, and 15% by weight rubber binder. LOL

[@foreverpinkf.7603]

So what do you want to say? AP stored in aluminum drums with a rubber inliner doesn´t create rocket fuel miraculously.

[@nzkshatriya6298]

Yup.........and seeing as I used to make my own hobby rocket motors.....gotta love APCP

[@carolinacoreas7716]

@@foreverpinkf.7603 I guess coincidence

[@foreverpinkf.7603]

@@carolinacoreas7716 Yes but the way he wrote it leaves me with the suspicion, that, if you combine A with B and C, you will create rocket fuel via coincidence and that is not true.

[@Syclone0044]

@@foreverpinkf.7603 Stop being cowardly / passive-aggressive and just come out and make whatever your point is. Are you claiming the explosion DIDNT happen because of these materials?

[@poloziki9990]

Employees be like: RUN BRO! But lets left Wheelchair Greg behind!

[@djstringsmusic2994]

If I remember correctly he initially made the realization he would hold other people back and told the rest of them to leave him

[@BIGBLOCK5022006]

@@djstringsmusic2994 You're correct.

[@xponen]

@@djstringsmusic2994 was he too heavy that people can't carry him?

[@garethevans9789]

A wheelchair is like an invisibility cloak at times. They probably just forgot the poor 6astard.

[@djstringsmusic2994]

@@xponen I'd have to go find the articles but yes apparently he decided carrying him would be to slow. The other person then decided to stay back with him and update the authorities

[@Werrf1]

This happened in 1988, during the Cold War. A lot of peoples' first thoughts on seeing the mushroom cloud was that it must have been a nuke.

[@001desertrat3]

I was there at PEPCON just one week prior to that incident , submitting an application for employment . Immediately after the incident , I ended up working as a Technical Consultant for the Clark County Fire Department . I was the one that provided the Blast Potential in Tons of TNT using the Brisance Tables that I have and measuring the Shock Wave that was visible in the original video footage shot from up on Black Mountain .

[@joeharisay]

This is one of the two events that changed fire protection laws here in Nevada, the other event was the MGM fire.

[@DocNo27]

MGM was in 83 and caused changes way before this one, and mainly in commercial - not industrial - spaces. To this day in Clark County, even low voltage cable (like ethernet) has to be in conduit because of the MGM fire. A huge pain and probably more to benefit the electricians union than provide any real safety (it's freaking low voltage!). On the other hand, many of the other changes were long overdue for sprinklers and stairwell lighting, ventilation, etc. Vegas is probably one of the safest towns RE: fire safety and hotels. Death is bad for business/tourism!

[@faethore8541]

I remember watching the MGM fire when I was about 10. It took me a couple years to figure out what the dark things falling from the upper floors were and why my mom kept yelling at me not to look.

[@TycoonTitian01]

I cannot believe they left behind the Person in the wheelchair

[@vr6swp]

The Seconds From Disaster episode covered it - he was in an area of the plant where wheelchair entrance / exit was kind of difficult, and the guy expected the plant to go up before he could escape. The office building was built in the 50's, well before handicapped access laws were enacted.

[@xponen]

@@vr6swp does the documentary give other explanation beside "the wheelchair can't fit the door"?

[@vr6swp]

@@xponen Not really, no

[@Gideonite]

It’s was the 1980s does that really surprise anyone?

[@nataliegath395]

@@brianbarrett2487 Seriously. My 13 year old classmates carried a wheelchair bound dude down 4 flights of stairs when a chemical leak meant we had to evac my school. If a bunch of 13 year olds can think of it, these adults got no excuse.

[@hirisk761]

Love this. One of the home videos you can hear the filmer said "THIS IS GONNA BE LOUD!"

[@itsjustafad]

The blast wave evaporating the buildings in the background was what always got me with the footage.

[@randyj4452]

I was a kid about 12 miles away at recess and yes it was LOUD!

[@christopherhurley2570]

@@randyj4452 Same, I was at Montessori ~15m away during recess in 2nd grade.

[@gamiezion]

"and now it's a retail area" still the most american thing ever.

[@LarryTheTubaBoy]

Not quite: Peak Americanness occurs when they open a Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill there...

[@zapfanzapfan]

Which will soon go bust and be replaced by a "Fulfillment Center"...

[@TheMrPeteChannel]

I'm the 50th like! USA! USA! USA! USA!

[@1coolkat14]

Except it is actually not a retail area now. It is an industrial area.

[@TheMrPeteChannel]

@@1coolkat14 You can have retail in some industrial areas.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Would you like to see more explosion videos? Suggestions on the back of a postcard!!

[@jwenting]

so this is basically very similar in what happened at the Enschede fireworks explosion in the Netherlands in 1997 (I think it was). Fireworks factory built just outside the city gets gobbled up by the city, someone makes a mistake, thing goes boom, entire neighbourhood gets flattened, numerous people die and massive damage.

[@Chubbytiger74]

Yes. I used to watch uscsb videos on explosions but your style is more enjoyable

[@ReverendTed]

I'd love to see your take on the New London School Explosion.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@ElectricSlevin]

one of my fave fireworks would be the Tianjin explosion, would be great to see that covered^^

[@DigitalNeb]

My wife was in Henderson that day. She was about 4 years old and playing in her front yard when the blast knocked her down. Crazy to see an event covered here that someone so close to me actually lived through. What an interesting video!

[@willemgregg9106]

I first saw this on "Destroyed in Seconds" tv show.

[@juliusnepos6013]

Yeah, that is my most favourite video along with the Texas city disaster, atomic bomb tests of Able and Baker, That giant firework factory explosion, Castle Bravo Explosion, Hurricane Iniki and Atomic Annie

[@kylek29]

Loved that show. It has a few show cousins like Seconds from Disaster and Engineering Disasters, for those that want a similar show.

[@thoughtexperimentsotherstu4680]

2000s NatGeo & discovery was peak you had so many just amazing show form destroyed in seconds to seconds from disaster and air crash investigations.

[@christycullen2355]

@@juliusnepos6013 you pretty much just fired off the best episodes always remember this one though

[@Tumbledweeb]

I first saw this and thought "REPCONN?"

[@TheTrainChasingPoet1999]

Breakfast while watching Plainly Difficult. Best combo ever.

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

I was not even able to get to breakfast, just coffee, but highly agree!

[@TheTrainChasingPoet1999]

@@BrilliantDesignOnline I only had Pop Tarts. Not the eggs and bacon I'd like, but I was tired this morning and didn't want to drag the toaster out to make toast.

[@chrisran24]

My grandma walked out of her house when she heard the first explosion. This ended up saving her windows when the 2nd blast went off (the larger explosion) cause she left the door open and it relieved some of the pressure from the shockwave. Many of her neighbors windows broke.

[@gyromurphy]

Once again I just got done brewing coffee and this pops up on my phone. Mr. Difficult, I don't know how you know to upload when a random guy in Pennsylvania is making coffee... but I sure do appreciate the gesture.

[@alwayslate1336]

Love the videos. Can't say I'm a fan of the condition of your computer screen hahaha

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Crusty

[@toddpeterson5904]

@@PlainlyDifficult Seriously, I love your channel, but *please* clean that screen

[@snowboredsnj]

@@PlainlyDifficult Requires remediation.

[@reinbeers5322]

As with many incidents, poor maintenance is the cause.

[@bitcoinski]

I was in 10th grade Rancho High School class when we heard that explosion...never experienced anything like it since...

[@randyj4452]

I was a few years behind you. 6th grade Lincoln Elementary School. Graduated from Rancho High in 1994! But yeah...I will never forget that sound!

[@ReneSchickbauer]

"After the explosion we turned the site into a much safer retail area" "What type of products do you sell there?" "Mostly Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer, high pressure natural gas and other harmless chemicals.... aaaand it's gone!"

[@PlainlyDifficult]

😂😂😂😂

[@kochaos6129]

With an entire shopping mall, a couple major hotels and a water park literally right down the road, not to mention the Walmart, Home Depot and hundreds of smaller stores. Oh, and the giant mega-church. Thats' East Vegas/Henderson for you..

[@lakoncers13]

@@kochaos6129Peocon sat basically where the Oceanspray factory sits now. Well over a mile from the mall, the Home Depot and the water park

[@lakoncers13]

They make oceanspray juice now at the former pepcon location

[@casbyness]

First responders: "So which site did you say exploded? The marshmallow factory or the rocket fuel factory?" :)

[@dx1450]

If it had been the marshmallow factory, it would have been like the end of Ghostbusters. Everyone covered in marshmallow cream.

[@faethore8541]

I was ditching school that day and hanging out in our living room when the first explosion happened. My father and I ran outside and saw the smoke and climbed onto our roof in the hopes of being able to see what was going on. When the big explosion hit, I had just climbed up and it almost knocked me off of the roof (my dad grabbed me by the hair). We were six miles away and it blew in all our windows and cracked an exterior wall of the house. A friend of mine from school (who lived closer) came home to find his garage door in his kitchen. It was a crazy day.

[@JTA1961]

Hair in the hand is better the kid in the bush

[@kochaos6129]

Similar story here. I was one year shy of school-age, lived about 6-7 miles away and went looking for my mom when i heard the blast. Luckily, she was in a different part of the house becsuse large shards of glass from her bedroom window were literally embedded into the opposite wall. My buddy who lived in my old trailer park a cpl miles closer down by Sam Boyd Stadium had the screen door blown off their place.

[@CynnamonSpyder]

Your father let you ditch school? My mom wouldn't even let me skip on Senior Skip Day lol

[@thejudgmentalcat]

That second explosion...I remember seeing this on "Seconds From Disaster"

[@Lrr_Of_Omikron]

I love the comments you have for all the animated speech bubbles. They crack me up so often.

[@ladymopar2024]

This was in my backyard, really scary especially when you have small children but there's a lot of things that go on in Nevada that people don't realize first testing nuclear bombs and other nuclear things. And they want to put the waste plant north of Las Vegas thanks for bringing this up

[@dr.rotwang]

Fun fact the "high pressure natural gas line" you mentioned was no ordinary line. It was in fact the 16 inch gas main that supplied the city of Las Vegas. BOOM!

[@fastinradfordable]

As a welder yes a spark easily turns most things into kindling. Also. Steel poles and fiberglass walls? Wtf it’s not a kit car.

[@allangibson8494]

The idea is if an explosion happened the building wouldn’t hold the pressure in and the thrown debris would be light enough not to cause injuries. I have seen similar designs used in acetylene bottle filling plants - and it works, one I worked on blew up and threw parts of the building two miles with no fatalities either in the building or anywhere else. BTW Acetylene is a high explosive.

[@Suedeman]

At a plant i worked at we had blow out walls in the coating rooms. We only ever had one be used a spark in the batch room blew the slab wall 90 feet into the parking lot

[@Tindometari]

Safety aside, light construction is cheap to put up, and cheap to rebuild. When your business plans have to consider potential explosions and their structural damage, that's a point worth thinking about.

[@yaboyblacklist2431]

as a former welder (severe back injury forced me to quit), I can confirm this as well.

[@joecummings1260]

I can remember a lot of industrial buildings that were built I'm guessing in the 40s and 50s that used that corrugated fiberglass panels for roofing and siding. Most of them are gone now or else resided with Steel. It seemed like the UV light or something made those fiberglass panels all deteriorate.

[@mafiousbj]

Nevada...the state where the US puts all their dangerous shit (they even wanted to store nuclear waste inside a mountain there)

[@markbeiser]

If you ever visit Nevada, you will understand why...

[@Page5framing]

@@markbeiser it’s where god ran out of stuff.

[@DxBlack]

Lies... Florida man hasn't moved there.

[@Page5framing]

@@DxBlack is Florida bad? I haven’t been there yet.

[@nickhowatson4745]

@@Page5framing yes. just google the phrase "Florida Man" and you will see all of the crazy shit that happens in Florida.

[@garethevans9789]

I've heard about this one before. Like many disasters there's multiple layers of WTF: Who needs fire suppression, it's not like they're making/ storing rocket fuel... In a built up area... above a gas main... With a token insurance policy. Also, a class 4 oxidizer is about as dangerous as you can get. It's surprising fire crews were sent in to fight it rather than flight/ GTFO. Hell, I've had a £10m liability insurance policy (and I'm not that dangerous😏). PS: Some disabled people are pretty fast (

[@prosfilaes]

It was a self-alarming fire. They saw a huge smoke cloud and drove towards it. When the explosions started, they backed off. It was probably quite a while before they had any idea what was burning.

[@Stopthisrightnow560]

There's a reason we have so many common sensical safety regulations and that's because of stupid shit like this.

[@DR_SOLO]

@@prosfilaes being a citizen Henderson still today I would like to clarify Verve info for you. The fire trucks were dispatched by 911 phone calls. They happened to take a road that was a dead end. Just recently became a dead end do the new construction. Which resulted in them having to turn around. It was a god-sent even with the trucks facing the other way all windshields imploded into the firefighters faces.

[@kronks4]

10m gbp? The hecc you needed that for?

[@tin2001]

My (well, not "mine" as such - the one I attend) tiny little church in rural Australia has $20m public liability insurance.... Which is approximately the same as £10m. It's not that expensive in the scheme of things because barely anyone ever claims on it... It's not the sort of thing you ever want to claim because it usually means someone has been killed or seriously injured due to your own incompetence.

[@JAMESWUERTELE]

I love this Channel! I have a weird obsession with industrial accidents.

[@vr6swp]

A widely circulated video shows at least the second explosion (maybe the first one too, can't remember). It was filmed by a guy working at a TV tower nearby. Video shows the shockwave from the second explosion

[@xponen]

is it from afar or do they have closeup footage like in Beirut?

[@vr6swp]

@@xponen The video is titled pepcom explosion . JUst search that. My best guess it's from 1.5 - 2 miles away but the footage is decent quality

[@Crosshair84]

@@xponen From afar. This was 1988. Cell phone cameras hadn't been invented yet and camcorders then were typically full size VHS units you had to rest on your shoulder. Not something you carry around like an iPhone.

[@dx1450]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXi2qWhqeNCKqbM Apparently there were at least two guys there, since they were talking with each other.

[@yaboyblacklist2431]

@@vr6swp actually, he was 4 miles away, on top of black mountain, if I remember correctly.

[@itsjustafad]

There’s footage of the blast on KZbin, well worth a watch, it’s insane the fatalities were so low.

[@dx1450]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXi2qWhqeNCKqbM

[@gordontaylor2815]

The possibility of a big kaboom was a large part of the reason why the plant was placed in the desert in the first place. :)

[@FoxSullivan]

The remote location, and the workers realizing when it was time to GTFO of there, and furthermore warning the firefighters about the incoming explosion, saved tons of lives.

[@itsjustafad]

@@FoxSullivan yep, disaster done right. Just seen another channel I'm subbed to (fascinating horror) uploaded a video on pepcon today.

[@patronsaintofpoison]

Pepcon was my first memory as a third generation Las Vegan. I was two years old and living in East Las Vegas (Charleston and Sandhill). I was sitting on the floor when the ground shook. My mother came running into the front room and looked out the front door. My best friend later in life remembered the explosion also. He lived much closer to the blast, in Henderson. In his house, nails popped out of the walls and they sustained broken windows. I used to have this brilliant baseball hat that had on the front the word HENDERSON with "It's a blast!" underneath. I fucking lost that hat. It was truly my favorite hat of all time. Great video, as usual!

[@kochaos6129]

Haha--I am also 3rd gen east Vegas native and was 4 at the time. Now my GF and i live less than a half-mile from Charleston/Sandhill. DURR-MY-THING-IS-LIKE-YOUR-THING..! 😬

[@phantomaviator1318]

The dude that stayed behind to alert the authorities is a hero. Poor wheelchair guy. I'm guessing they stayed together to comfort eachother.

[@CivilWarWeekByWeek]

I first read this as the peppercorn disaster.

[@volvo09]

If it were a pepper spill the resulting sneeze fits could have been larger than this explosion.

[@badboyzninja1]

i read it as popcorn

[@vinesauceobscurities]

@@badboyzninja1 "Dear god, there's popcorn everywhere! Oh, the humanity!"

[@garethevans9789]

The inner-arsonist in me is curious to know what a popcorn factory fire would look like.🤔 Ironically sugar/ marshmallow is a pretty decent fuel with an oxidizer (see sugar rocket), atomized or heated (think napalm).

[@virtualtools_3021]

@@garethevans9789 vaporized oil + corn husk dust + popcorn dust + air + big badda boom?

[@bmjake]

Thanks for the arrow in the thumbnail. I couldn’t figure out where the explosion was.

[@willgoodwin2560]

I lived in Vegas from 2003-2013. Bought two vehicles at a place about 1000ft from the former PEPCON site. I had heard of this explosion but never realized it was so close to, and what now is the middle of, town. I also ran into a PepCon once in Orlando, FL... but that was a Cheerleading Convention.

[@SpagetiBoye]

Ah yes weld near extremely combustible rocket fuel, what could go wrong?

[@Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P]

ID....DI.....OTTTT!!!!

[@playgroundchooser]

No worries, it's just an oxidizer bro! Totally not the "fuel" in rocket fuel. Should be fine. 💥💥💥💥

[@Crosshair84]

Except they weren't welding near it. It was the fiberglass that caught fire first, which then ignited residual AP dust. Nevada has lots of dust and most of the time it doesn't burst into flame.

[@HiringHamblin]

"They wouldn't let me weld near this rocket fuel if it wasn't safe" "He wouldn't be welding near that rocket fuel if it wasn't safe"

[@xaenon]

@@HiringHamblin " But do they KNOW you're welding near this rocket fuel?"

[@MrJetFormation]

Been waiting so long for this. The video is legendary. Honestly when you make a video I instantly try to watch.

[@maggie1389]

excited when i saw you did pepcon! wild disaster. great work once again PD. may i recommend "whoosh!" screen cleaner ;)

[@bethluther3950]

Been catching up on some older videos. I love the ‘side’ comments made by your cartoon figures … they always say the perfect thing someone is thinking !!! Thanks for this extra touch.

[@Shloomy_Shloms]

Watching a plainly difficult video is plainly easy

[@aickavon]

'you know that guy in a wheelchair?' 'yeah tim?' "couldn't we just put him in your car?' 'The wheelchair wouldn't fit." "oh right, duh. Sorry man, your wheelchair wouldn't fit.'

[@Lizardfiz12]

excellent timing in that intro 💯😂

[@DaveHanson]

I live in Vegas and our next door neighbor used to work at Pepcon. About a year before the explosion, he gave me a duffel bag he had received from work that said something like "Pepcon: Number one in safety"

[@Jammermaker]

One of my friends was actually in the city when this happened. He was in an insulation truck and it got blasted onto its side when the explosion happened.

[@Jammermaker]

Lol now I’m curious if that was his truck shown in the video because it was Gale he worked for.

[@jenniferbaldini3527]

"Get out if you encounter a big fire". Hmm. Good advice, sound evacuation policy. Let's go with that.

[@allangibson8494]

Steps to take in the event of fire - ruddy great big ones.

[@jenniferbaldini3527]

@@allangibson8494 Yes, yes, that seems prudent. Add that to the policy!! 😉

[@macgeek2004]

OMG YES, I've been wanting you to cover this one for YEARS.

[@charlielynes]

The long-form video that was luckily taken that day is an astounding piece of historical importance. The explosive shock waves are astounding. ☮️💚♾️

[@balanceofjudgement6136]

A great video as always, don't know how you do them so fast and keep them such good quality! I wonder if you'd be interested in doing a vid on the 1888 train wreck in Fountain, Colorado, USA that destroyed the whole town when someone deliberately released the brakes on a set of cars hauling 17,000 lbs of dynamite powder, which rolled down into another train?

[@virtualtools_3021]

dynamite powder? he should cover that

[@TrainMann]

Oh boy, sounds fun!

[@jamestheotherone742]

@0:38 Man, clean your monitor screen. Eerily similar circumstances to the Beirut explosion that was also initiated by a fire caused by welding. Apparently a lot of VW beetles died that day.

[@brianm6117]

My dad was stationed at Nellis AFB from 85-89. I was in elementary school when the explosion happened. We were actually at recess when it occurred. I remember feeling a small rumble and then seeing the cloud of smoke in the distance. The gym teacher ran around gathering kids to get them inside. At that point they didn't know what had occurred. We were still in the midst of the Cold War and being near a military installation thoughts probably went to the absolute worst at first. There is a video of the actual explosion taken by workers in the distance. You can see the shockwave move across the desert floor. Its amazing more people weren't hurt or killed.

[@kerrybateman8556]

About time! Thanks for this 🙏🏻

[@Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P]

"...has been developed into a retail area." -- Yes, our sales are BOOMING during COVID-19!!!! Happy Halloween to All!!

[@j.f.fisher5318]

that line made me chuckle too, though your take is much funnier than mine haha

[@starspeculation]

I'm dumb. I thought this was going to be a video about a Pepsi factory explosion.

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

Very sad that the Pepsi factory was located so close to the Mentos plant :-)

[@deelanders6132]

You are about to see the craziest kaboom other than that fertilIer company in Texas next to the school that blew

[@Syclone0044]

@@deelanders6132 until the Beirut, Lebanon explosion a few months ago

[@dx1450]

Someone dropped a bunch of Mentos into the diet Pepsi tank!

[@TwixtheFox]

Great video as always! It's amazing how you can make such quality videos in such a short amount of time!

[@ultraman5168]

Riveting work as always. The Tham Luang cave rescue would probably make a great video.

[@Zappyguy111]

3:52 Storage Area B looks mighty impostery to me.

[@sabrinarosario6499]

0:44 That “Ooh” cracked me up. Idk why.

[@SkyraHope]

You have such a great channel! Thanks for keeping us informed! ♥️

[@poloziki9990]

"3.8 Millions kilograms" Never heard about this unit measuring 1000kg called "tonne" (t) ?

[@everyhandletaken]

😏

[@juliusnepos6013]

Lol yeah

[@TheFoggyjones]

A US ton is 907kg. An imperial or 'long' ton is 1016kg. The word you are looking for is 'tonne'.

[@AKAtheA]

or since we're talking small nuke-sized explosions, kilotons ;-)

[@ThunderWorkStudioAMGE]

Let's go full SI and say 3.8 gigagrams.

[@Lrr_Of_Omikron]

I cant believe my timing was this good. I just asked for a video on this the other day and blam her it is. I actually lived not too far from the plant, sadly I was only 2 when it happened so I dont remember the explosion.

[@dx1450]

I was thinking about this disaster and hoped someone covered it. I'm just disappointed he didn't include all the footage of the tremendous explosion other than a teaser at the beginning.

[@dx1450]

I was thinking about this disaster and hoped someone covered it. I'm just disappointed he didn't include all the footage of the tremendous explosion other than a teaser at the beginning.

[@CailStearns]

Your voice is really calming despite the nature of the content in your videos, I often fall asleep too it haha

[@makeart5070]

I remember touring the marshmallow plant next door as a kid. They gave away free samples right off the line, and the fresh marshmallows tasted amazing! Nothing like when you get them from a bag at a store months later. We went back to Vegas on ankther famiky trip a few years later and I asked my mom if we could take the marshmallow factory tour again, but she said no it had been blown up in the rocket fuel explosion, which we had seen on the news

[@1MoTimeRound]

A part of me wouldn't mind dying in an event like this. Imagine the "Holy bleep" your relatives will get every time they recount your death. So much more interesting than heart attack.

[@Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P]

I hear their are Plenty of openings..........in N. Syria!! JEEZ

[@AKAtheA]

then again, they pronounce you dead only because they can't find you...or any of your remains whatsoever...

[@deelanders6132]

I want to go out like a sparkler

[@CrowwreakStevenson]

plus, by the time your body would have time to process pain your organs would be in different area codes anyway

[@xaenon]

I wouldn't really care what was said about me. In fact, I wouldn't care about ANYTHING, would I? Hell, I'd be dead before my brain could process the fact that I was dying. And the knowledge that I wouldn't feel anything would be actually be of some comfort. Yeah, I know, I'm fucking weird. I never much bought into the religious narrative of life after death, judgement, heaven and hell, etc. Take all that away and death, in and of itself, doesn't seem so scary.

[@sapphirewine7470]

I wonder if covering the hawaii false missile alert, or similar occurrences might be interesting. Would love to hear about early warning systems failing and going off for the wrong reasons, and peoples reactions leading to potential harm.

[@neeksor]

I was in an elementary school about 4 miles away. The teacher had to seal the windows and doors with plastic and we were told to hide under desks. It was exciting. :D The windows in my house were blown out.

[@DarkDisc1]

First time I saw this was during a huge explosion compilation

[@christianmichael4020]

This one’s familiar to me since it involves a chemical that gets used in rocket motors: AP.

[@MedicMainDave]

could you do a video on the spaceshuttle challenger someday? thx

[@deadfreightwest5956]

Lesson learned: never locate your rocket fuel plant next to a marshmallow factory! Have you ever set a marshmallow on fire? Those things make the London blitz look like a campfire!

[@ibbylancaster8981]

I knew a guy that was out in that area when it happened. He said he was about 20 miles away and thought that a nuke or something had gone off. Great video. And greetings from a chilly area in southeastern North Carolina USA 😉🤙

[@pikmaniac2643]

ah, ammonium strikes again, just with Chlorine and Oxygen rather than Nitrogen and Oxygen.

[@cris_261]

Just wondering, what sort of disaster/explosion would rate a "9" on PD's disaster scale?

[@WeldinMike27]

Have you ever torn the seat of your pants in public? People might see your undies. That's a 9

[@matthewday7565]

Chernobyl - got to be pretty near the top of the scale, though not in immediate lethality

[@SebAnders]

If it doesn't remove a continent from existence, its not a 9.

[@blackosprey2219]

Worst case scenario nuclear reactor meltdowns, and other disasters that have massive and long-lasting damage to the people and surrounding environment. Not much can top a serious nuclear disaster, since most things can't poison miles of land for hundreds of years.

[@aaronlea9559]

Thanks so much for another great vid!

[@JetsareBack12]

wooo early to it again, have been watching these all night now to help me sleep as well haha, duel purpose! =P keep em coming love them all

[@Ferg1x]

0:43 dude....clean your screen. It looks as if it wasn't just PEPCON that had a massive explosion. Otherwise good stuff man.

[@Penguin_of_Death]

Not sure why anyone would actually film and upload the video instead of just taking a screenshot. Snipping tool or print screen would work...

[@Ferg1x]

@@Penguin_of_Death possibly did it for humor, I assume.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

This sounds very similar to the Beiruit explosion.

[@Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P]

I kinda wish I knew where he gets his stills from....But I remember the recordings and the live feed of that and after the 2nd & 3rd explosion....WOW!!

[@andykillsu]

Yes they are very similar since Ammonium Nitrate is very similar.

[@PeterShipley1]

yet again you make another awesome informative video

[@LL-rb8wd]

A highly underrated channel, well worthy of 1 million subscribers. 👍

[@wilting_alocasia]

I know that in a few years or less the Beruit blast will be on this channel >

[@colincampbell767]

I'd like to see a detailed explanation of the decisions that were made (in some cases years before) that led up to the explosion.

[@SebAnders]

@@colincampbell767 i saw such a video, it seems to have been a case of nobody knowing whose responsibility it was/who had authority. Ridiculous story really including a Russian businessman who doesn't seem to have had the capital to properly run a cargo ship, hence why it was seized for not paying port costs.

[@Morkvonork]

Hmm my 5 buck a month liability insurance covers me alone for 20 mio ^^

[@eljanrimsa5843]

It wouldn't if you were producing ammonium perchlorate.

[@rynnziolkowski4642]

I can never get over just how terrifying the video of the explosions is

[@billlittlejohn2331]

I really like your videos. Main reason is the addition of the cartoon characters. It makes a somewhat boring video more fun to watch. Keep up the good work. Thanks

[@kirkmorrison6131]

I remember when this happened, it was in the paper and on the News for a few days.

[@JoshStLouis314]

Ammonium CHLORIDE is used for the double displacement reaction with sodium perchlorate. Ammonium chlorate is even more unstable than the perchlorate and not widely used because of this.

[@adamloverin231]

Just found the channel after Centralia episode. Love it.

[@BrianSu]

Thanks for making the video I've suggested at last!!!!

[@darbieadams7633]

I lived there and will never forget it. I was in maybe 5th grade. Blew the windows out.

[@amandawashington4239]

That must have been terrifying!

[@Brosolo_]

I live in Henderson. Cool to learn a little more about this historic event.

[@casbyness]

Oil rig, dam, rocket fuel factory... Now you just need to cover a ruby mine cave-in, and you'll have covered every scenario from the pilot episode of Transformers :)

[@armorer94]

Somewhat ironic that the car graphic used to portray the evacuation of the plant was a Ford pinto. 🔥⚠️

[@saragrant9749]

I have a couple of potential suggestions for future topics- the Boston molasses flood, the great lakes storm, the Dupont phosgene exposure incident! This is a great channel!