The PEPCON Disaster: Inside the Day Henderson, Nevada Exploded
The PEPCON disaster on May 4, 1988 was the most powerful civilian explosion in American history — a rocket-fuel chemical plant in Henderson, Nevada that vaporized itself, leveled the marshmallow factory next door, cracked windows at McCarran International Airport seven miles away, and shoved a 1,000-foot mushroom cloud over Las Vegas while a Boeing 737…