Comments on: The PEPCON Disaster

By: erikmartin

erikmartin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:56:16 +0000

“Hindenburg wasn’t ammonium perchlorate. It was iron oxide and aluminum powder, the same stuff that goes into thermite. Mythbusters did some experiments with the compositions in question though, and…”

This was one of Mythbusters’ worst and most sloppy cringingly bad experiments. They basically just controlled the flow of hydrogen through a valve to try to make the combustion look something like Hindenburg. You can’t accurately replicate combustion with scale models.

By: salvobrothers

salvobrothers — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:58:09 +0000

We hope that appropriate Safety-Measures r taken so that this doesn’t happen in a Big City!?

By: minnie08

minnie08 — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 03:56:12 +0000

I like some of the others who have posted comments lived in Henderson the day of the Pepcon explosion. I was in class at Basic High School at the time the of the first explosion. Unlike some of the other schools the students where lead out to the foot ball fields due to parts of the tiles falling in and there was lights that where falling as well due to the sound wave that the first explosion sent rambling across the desert with nothing in its way to slow it down any. By the time the second explosion happened alot of us stood and watched as the balls of fire shot up into the sky followed by the plumes of smoke whan the second sound wave hit the ground moved under your feet. Everyone was scared no one really new what was happening some of the students thought that it was a bomb that had been dropped as the news reports started to come in about what was happening they where saying for people to stay in doors due to toxic fumes that had been shot up in the air with the balls of fire a toxic cloud that mind you was spreading across miles as a result of the wind caring it. The school dismissed classes in the days following the explosion of Pepcon crews came in to asses the damages to all the homes business and schools in the area. Of course the area around the plant and henderson where hit hard everything around the plant was gone just holes and burned spots where the fire had been many houses and business in the henderson area had a great deal of damage. The school was closed for the rest of te school year due to it being unsafe for us to resume classes the structure of the school had been damaged due to the force of the sound wave you could see where the front doors of the school had been blown in ward the doors wouldnt shut right the big thing though was that in the aftermath as they checked the school over to make sure it was safe it was dicovered that insulation that hadd been used in the school when it was orignally built was not safe to be in the building because it was made with abseptos which if exposed to the dust and particals that covered our school could cause cancer. It was discovered that there was alot of this in the school officals determined that the school was not safe for us to return to class. Shipping us to other schools wasnt possible due to the amount of students that we had and the amount of students that where at the other schools there would have been to many in the schools. The school was dismissed a few weeks early and the school was told that before the classes could resume in the fall that all the contaminated things in the school which was all the insulation most of the ceilling tiles and some other stuff had to be cleaned up and removed from the school before we would be aloud to go back in the school. I remember watching the crews working all summer that year to make the school safe and for a while no one thought that the crews would hav it done in time. The amount of people that where hurt that day was sad and the two who where unable to make it out will live in the hearts forever or at least for those of us who where actually there that terrible day. It was a day that any one who lived through it will remember it like it happened yesterday and those who have read about it will always intrested in the events that unfolded that day.

By: voxpopulisuxx

voxpopulisuxx — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:24:25 +0000

[quote]voxpopulisuxx said: “Youtube pulled the vids any other URLS?”[/quote]

NM Just serached PEPCON on utube found it

By: voxpopulisuxx

voxpopulisuxx — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:21:47 +0000

Youtube pulled the vids any other URLS?

By: SirElliott

SirElliott — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 07:07:04 +0000

For a better understanding of the chemistry of the explosion you might want to take a look at http://www.chemaxx.com/explosion1.htm written by Dr. Fox. Dr. Fox was one of the team members investigating the explosion. He feels the storage containers played a big part in the explosion; “Soon, all the normal aluminum storage bins for the perchlorate were full and additional storage containers were needed. Instead of aluminum bins, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) drums were used. Neither the unconfined perchlorate nor HDPE bins present much of a hazard alone, but together they form a classic fuel + oxidizer scenario.”

The Defense Department used the explosion to do some work on blast damage http://www.stormingmedia.us/90/9006/A900693.html

By: c0uchtime

c0uchtime — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:04:25 +0000

Sta-Puf Marshmallow Man! I had been hoping for a sequel and this looks like a movie that needs to be made!!!!! A DI article and a DI movie, if my wishes come true!!!

By: Joshua

Joshua — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:42:52 +0000

Alan, your link to the explosion footage on YouTube is no longer good - YouTube says they took it down for a Terms of Service violation or somesuch. Fear not though; there are several more videos of the incident still posted there. My personal favorite is this one.