James Kenney / Sun File Photo
A helicopter flies over the smoldering remains of the Pacific Engineering Production Company of Nevada after two large explosions destroyed the plant, May 7, 1988.
Sunday, May 4, 2014 | 2 a.m.
Twenty-six years ago today, a massive explosion at Pacific Engineering & Production Company of Nevada — known as PEPCON — in Henderson killed two people, caused $70 million in damage and sent shock waves hundreds of miles.
The facility produced ammonium perchlorate — used to boost the performance of rocket fuel.
For those who lived in the Las Vegas Valley at the time, it’s a key memory.
“I think about the blast every time I see a plume of smoke,” Henderson Home News blogger Mandy Walton wrote in 2009. “It’s a memory that just won’t go away.”
Calls for action after the disaster led to new laws to limit the amount of hazardous materials that can be stored in a location.
But years later, there are still chemicals being produced and stored in the area.
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