Fire raises safety questions

Jace Radke, Keith Paul and Mary Manning

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2001 | 10:58 a.m.

A spark from a manufacturing machine caused the fire at a model rocket plant in eastern Las Vegas that began shortly after noon Monday and remained burning this morning.

The spark leaped to raw materials, setting them ablaze, firefighters said today.

Hundreds of residents within a half-mile radius of AeroTech Inc. at 1955 S. Palm St. were evacuated Monday night to a temporary Red Cross shelter at Valley High School. They were returning to their homes this morning and asking why such a plant was permitted in their neighborhood.

The fire injured six people, including two plant workers -- a 24-year-old man and a 65-year-old man -- who were in critical condition this morning at University Medical Center.

Another worker, a 52-year-old man, was in good condition at UMC this morning. Three firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation at UMC and released Monday night.

The fire gutted the AeroTech building and caused an estimated $12 million to $15 million in damages.

The fire was fueled by 2,500 pounds of ammonium perchlorate and 800 pounds of magnesium, used as raw materials in the production of rocket fuel, firefighters said.

It was ammonium perchlorate that in 1988 caught fire and leveled a manufacturing plant in Henderson known as PEPCON, killing two people, injuring more than 300, and causing more than $20 million worth of damage.

There were two initial explosions at 12:15 p.m. Monday, and the resulting fire was put out within an hour. A third explosion, however, rocked the plant about 4:20 p.m. and started the fire that burned all night.

"The spark caused the fire and it resulted in the bigger fire," Bob Leinbach, Clark County Fire Department spokesman, said this morning. "It was accidental."

The investigation is continuing and fire officials are going through the company's records to determine if permits to store the chemicals had been obtained.

That's the "million dollar question," Clark County Fire Department spokesman Steve La-Sky said this morning.

"Did the company have the permits to have that material, and if so, who knew?" La-Sky said, adding that his department's own hazardous materials experts did not yet know the answer.

The state fire marshal's office said this morning that AeroTech did not have a state permit for hazardous materials.

Dozens of residents learned the company was in their back yard while watching the baseball playoffs and reading a warning to evacuate that scrolled along the bottom of their TV screens.

"Residents want to know, we want to know, and right now there's no answers," La-Sky said. "This is going to end up being a big accountability issue."

Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams said she would demand answers today on why the rocket fuel that exploded Monday was allowed to be stored in a residential neighborhood.

"Why did they allow 2,500 pounds of ammonium perchlorate and 800 pounds of magnesium in a residential area?" asked Williams, who represents the neighborhood around AeroTech's warehouse, near St. Louis Avenue and Boulder Highway.

Kelley Graves today summed up the feelings of many of the evacuated residents of the area: "What the hell was a rocket plant doing in our neighborhood?"

Kelley and Linda Graves were living in a temporary residence in a nearby recreational vehicle park when they were evacuated Monday night. Their permanent residence will be in the Riviera Mobile Home Park across the street from the burned-out AeroTech.

"We already made the down payment and signed the papers," Kelley Graves said. "Years ago a business like this (PEPCON) damn near blew up Henderson. When are they going to learn not to put these kinds of materials so close to neighborhoods?"

Michael Davis, a resident of the Riviera Mobile Home Park, who like the Graves spent the night in a makeshift Red Cross shelter at the Valley High School gym, echoed those sentiments.

"They put our lives and our homes at risk -- whoever issued those permits should have their brains examined," Davis said.

Chuck Pulsipher, Clark County zoning administrator, said this morning that the storage of 2,500 pounds of ammonium perchlorate would not require a special permit in a light industrial zone.

State law, under Nevada Revised Statute 459-3816, defines ammonium perchlorate as a hazardous material if the amount stored exceeds 7,500 pounds.

"Based on what I know, it (the factory) is fine where it is," Pulsipher said.

Barbara Ginoulias, assistant director for current planning in Clark County, said AeroTech was issued its business license in 1987. The permit allows light industrial use.

"As long as they stayed under 7,500 pounds, that would be an accessory to their use and they would not need a special permit," Ginoulias said.

The mobile home park across the street from the plant was built in 1962, more than two decades before AeroTech moved to its current site in a roughly 2-acre light industrial park surrounded by more residential development.

Jack Nims, 68, another resident of the mobile home park, said, "I am going to be writing a whole lot of letters" to officials, inquiring about why he and others were not made aware of such a business.

"You can ask every resident of the park and I'll bet no one had a clue that type of business was there," Nims said.

Apparently workers saw the sparks and the small fire begin when the raw materials ignited, a fire officials said.

The chemically fueled flames reached as high as 40 feet. Bystanders could feel the heat from the periodic explosions from as far as half a mile away.

"The explosions were just huge," said Barbara Steininger, a cook at the Lucky Nickel Saloon, 2075 Palm St. "The smoke started coming in our kitchen, and we knew we better get out."

The unstable nature of the chemicals caught firefighters by surprise about 4:20 p.m., when the third explosion rocked the plant.

"We thought we had it contained, and we had a team of about six firefighters putting down foam inside the building when a barrel of magnesium ignited," La-Sky said. "It was a very close call, and the fireball was right behind them as they got out.

"It is amazing no one was killed. We're dealing with extremely volatile chemicals, and we really don't know what they're going to do next."

Firefighters battled the blaze until 5 p.m., when fire officials pulled crews back as a safety precaution, allowing the fire to burn. It was expected to be out this afternoon.

"We're not going to risk any lives to save a building," La-Sky said.

About 80 firefighters and 20 units from the county, North Las Vegas and Las Vegas fire departments were called to the blaze, La-Sky said.

Authorities evacuated the neighborhood, and displaced residents took shelter at Valley High School.

Catherine Tuttle, 82, who lives in the mobile home park, said she did not have time to find her oxygen tank before being evacuated to the high school.

"I saw the evacuation on TV," Tuttle said, breathing from a portable tank provided by the Red Cross. "I couldn't get my oxygen out in time."

Tuttle soon exhausted the temporary tank, and was taken by ambulance to Sunrise Hospital for oxygen and care about an hour after the evacuation began.

The fire sent a billowing cloud of smoke that shifted in color from black to white to red and back again.

Despite the constant cloud, Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Chapman said that the Environmental Protection Agency did not consider the smoke hazardous to valley residents.

"Of course, smoke is always dangerous, but this smoke is not considered hazardous," Chapman said.

AeroTech's explosion is the second industrial blast in Nevada within a month. A series of explosions on Sept. 17 at Depressurized Technologies International, an aerosol recycling plant in Northern Nevada, left one man dead and four others hospitalized.

Ammonium perchlorate was the cause of the Henderson PEPCON explosion in May 1988 that killed two and injured more than 300. Ammonium perchlorate at the Pacific Engineering & Production Co. of Nevada plant was ignited by sparks from a welding torch, triggering four explosions that rocked the Las Vegas Valley.

PEPCON moved to Cedar City, Utah, in 1989 and now is called American Pacific Corp.

Sun reporters Ed Koch, Erin Neff and Jeff Libby contributed to this story.

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