I was roughly 5 miles away from this when it went off.loudest thing I have ever heard.blew out windows and caved in ceiling tiles 5 miles away.bad buzz indeed.
PEPCON is in the Fallout games 3 and New Vegas. to make sure they didn't get sued Obsideon Entertainment changed the P into an R and added an N to the ending.
I was living there when this happened, I don't recall any od the explosions sounds to be fake on the other video. This was really a horrible day to remember!
I've recently watched this on Discovery in "Destroyed in Seconds". They added a blast sound to make it more impressive... too bad they did that simultaneous to the visible explosion. THIS is what makes the difference between documentations and TV shows on Discovery Channel.
@NFSHeld You are completely incorrect. I was teaching at a Henderson school when this occurred. It was even worse than this experiencing it in the raw. Where did you get your information from regarding "ADDED a blast sound?" It was from a faulty source for sure.
@principles101 I guess you'd agree with me if you understood what I wrote :) I said that this video was also on Discovery Channel in the show "Destroyed in Seconds". However, they (DC) edited a blast sound into the video: the audible bang occured in the same second like the visible blow up. This is how you know that it was edited into the footage. Then I said that such matters are the difference between documentations and DC TV shows made for the awe of its audience, and criticized DC for that.
Remember it very very well. I was 7 yrs old In 1st grade walking from my classroom to the lunch room when we heard the big kaboom! Rushed into the lunchroom and everyone got under the tables. My parents left wrk, came and picked me up and we went home and out living room window was broken . It was a day I'll never forget. I lived about 10 miles away from pepcon. They sponsored my pop Warner team that year lol
I've beaten fallout new Vegas three time and I live in las Vegas and I never realized until now that the repcon rocket facility in the is actually based off pepcon rocket fuel plant. God I'm slow.
Only one person died in the Pepcon explosion, a Pepcon employee (who was handicapped and in a wheelchair) that stayed behind to call ALL the local Fire Departments. The large explosion was the 12' gas main for all of Clark County Nevada which stupid Pepcon built their solid rocket fuel plant over. I was there...
i wonder if they figured out how powerful that explosion was like in kilotons or what the magnitude was on the ricter scale. ammonium perchlorate is crazy shit
@AneierHSNO4 I think this registered a 3.8 on the ricter scale, from a geology station 60 miles away. This thing was bigger than many types of tactical nukes.(P.S. those people in that car by the road are seriously screwed) :(
"Further investigation into the event found that the destructive energy from the larger explosion was roughly equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT, or one kiloton."
They're only now attempting to ban perchlorate in drinking water. President Bush refused to do so - would it have harmed his friends' business profits?
I was there. Grew up in Green Valley and was in school at Estes Mcdonnell elementary, about 2 miles away. It was scarry. We evacuated after the second explosion. Broke all of the windows in our house, as well as most of the neighbors. Two people died. Only the old school Hendersonites can say they were there when Pepcon exploded.
When I tilt my camcorder towards the sun it usually takes a couple seconds to adjust to the light (and go dark). On the second explosion, the camera switches between light and dark instantly. That's one bright explosion...
Oh also, @ww77 I heard that it was a spark from a welding equipment that initially caused the fire.
When I tilt my camcorder towards the sun it usually takes a couple seconds to adjust to the light (and go dark). On the second explosion, the camera switches between light and dark instantly. That's one bright explosion...
Many people don't remember a book called, "HENDERSON BOOM TOWN". It was book of cartoons depicting what happened that day. I did the cartoons, printed and published the book, only 200 copies. They sold out in two weeks with very little advertising. A few officials at city hall were upset with me for printing the book so I decided not to do a second run. There's more to the story, but we won't go into that now. I just thought someone might be interested in seeing those cartoons from 1988.
This company is owned by AMPAC. I used to work for them, not in the perchlorate plant, but in another chemical plant. The company's a fucking joke and their safety program is equivalent to a deaf and blind retard trying to compete in a rally-car race. They rebuilt this plant elsewhere and another explosion happened there in 1997 that killed someone else. Wiki says Pepcon happened because welding sparks ignited perchlorate residue. You'd think they'd wash down the area b4 hot-work. Idiots.
@meDJSIRIUS the speed of sound is ~340m/s ... the sound takes about 10 seconds to reach them after the explosion ... hmm ... let's see ... can you figure it out?
@Riggs747: They remastered it for TV. They essentially created interframes where none existed before; it looks smoother, but it contains no more information than the original film, this one.
There were two deaths- a wheelchair-confined worker, and Roy Westerfield, who made the initial 911 call to the fire deartment when the fire first started. Roy was crippled by polio earlier in his life and was unable to get out in time.
@TommyVercettiJK The flash from the explosion overwhelmed the camera, and blacked out the background - if you look closely, you can still see the marshmallow plant in the background to the left. The death toll was counted perfectly well. It killed two people. I watched it happen from a revetment at Nellis AFB, and was part of the emergency response to the accident.
@TommyVercettiJK@TommyVercettiJK The flash from where the flash from the explosion overwhelmed the camera, and blacked out the background - if you look closely, you can still see the marshmallow plant in the background to the left. The death toll was counted perfectly well. It killed two people. I watched it happen from a revetment at Nellis AFB, and was part of the emergency response to the accident.
@TommyVercettiJK The flash from where the flash from the explosion overwhelmed the camera, and blacked out the background - if you look closely, you can still see the marshmallow plant in the background to the left. The death toll was counted perfectly well. It killed two people. I watched it happen from a revetment at Nellis AFB, and was part of the emergency response to the accident.
If you look closely at :51 then :50 and :52, you can see the building off to the left of the explosion in :51. I lived in Las Vegas when this happened and our business was near McCarran airport. We stood and watched this entire thing evolve. Our view was almost exactly the same as this video. The factory was located in a valley and most of the area surrounding it was at higher elevations. We stood in the parking lot in front of our store and had an unobstructed view.
@TommyVercettiJK The Pepcon explosion in Nevada... Only one person died, he was in a wheel chair and did not get out (my grandmother went to his funeral) I was here and saw the cloud from the explosion and felt the explosion. I don't recall anyone else dieing... but it's been a really long time since it happened.
@TommyVercettiJK The Pepcon explosion in Nevada... Only one person died, he was in a wheel chair and did not get out (my grandmother went to his funeral) I was here and saw the cloud from the explosion and felt the it. I don't recall anyone else dieing... but it's been a really long time since it happened.
its not a frame from a different explosion. look at the building on the left. the explosion is just too bright for the camera. its clearly an old one, VHS or something like that.
most cameras, adjust to light exposures, that means, if its dark, it will take more light for a clearer, brighter, image, if its bright, it will absorb less, making a darker picture, for that split second, it auto adjusted to the flash of the blast
the deathtoll was at least 1 factory worker
one worker stayed behind to make sure everyone evacuated, he also tried to save the plant, but sadly, that blast you see, was the final light he saw
most cameras, adjust to light exposures, that means, if its dark, it will take more light for a clearer, brighter, image, if its bright, it will absorb less, making a darker picture, for that split second, it auto adjusted to the flash of the blast
the deathtoll was at least 1 factory worker
one worker stayed behind to make sure everyone evacuated, he also tried to save the plant, but sadly, that blast you see, was the final light he saw
@TommyVercettiJK The official incident report says there were only 2 deaths, both workers in the Pepco factory- one in a wheelchair and one called the fire department. It took them 6 hours to find out however.
@steelpanther33 your wrong buddy i met one of the firelighters one day in high school they came dwn and did a whole presentation on what happened tht day. In 1998 it was pretty well developed in tht area. It would have been even more horrific than it was in 88..
That was largest FAE ever in history hands down after first explosion the air and fuel mixed perfectly to creat conditions perfect for second explosion.....I have never seen not even all the weapons US Military detonated in Iraq equal to this only tactical nuke this had to be at least 1 to 2 kilotons. Well---yeah sorry those suicide bombers that huge truck but not this big!
the exact date was may 1988 i was in high school when this happened .everyone at school thought it was the end of the world ..the mushroom cloud could be seen for miles.the damage from the aftershock was many miles and windows in north las vegas were broken
I remember this.. I was in 1st grade lol. We lived in Las Vegas and felt both explosions. Its funny because now there is an Ocean Spray factory where the Pepcon building was and the area is surrounded by houses now. This explosion wiped out the marshmallow factory next door. RIP marshmallow factory... you will always be missed.
Steel.... the date of that was May 4, 1988. I know because my dad was inside the building when it went up, and I was in 7th grade at Burkholder junior high 2.5 miles away. The date is burned into my head, and I STILL get goosebumps watching any video of it.
I'm surprised those shockwaves did not knock them 10 feet in the air. They must be really far away and zoomed in. An accidental explosion that big can take away 26% of hearing.
This dangerous science experiment shows that light travels faster than sound; we see the explosion before we hear it, providing some warning to cover your ears.
Im lost on the origin of the bending light argument, too .. BUT..
In a massive blast the intense pressure and heat, and the atmospheric effects they cause around the initial blast CAN cause light to "bend", much like "mirages" on a hot road surface.
I noticed some effects like that in a EOD video some time ago, and some nuke tests.
That's the shockwave. Explosive force is measured at m/s (how fast the blast expands, I think TNT is somewhere around 6200 m/s). So it is the expansion and heating of gases from the point of origin going outward in laymans terms. (off the top of my head. Look up Explosive shockwave definition for somethin more in-depth)
@jumper0888: Pretty much correct. It's the sound/shock wave spreading outwards like a bubble. When it reaches the camera after about 8 seconds they get the boom. The detonation speed is only within a block of the chemical; the parts may come out of the explosion at supersonic speeds, but the b last wave is the air, and it can't propagate faster than the speed of sound, about 0.2 miles/sec.
has nothing to do with science as you think. Its simply because the camera is auto adjusting for the brightness of the explosion. lol. you can replicate this by pointsing your cell phone camera at a bright lamp...or the sun. (warning, sun may damage the camera optics)
At least this is real, the stupid "Destroyed in Seconds" TV show version of this was edited to make the explosion and the sound occur at the same time even though the video was taken from miles away.
@dhughes1969 Even "realistic" video games are guilty of the same thing. Insta-sound ruins the whole experience. Sound delay from distant explosions is just cool! The TV show version didn't even bother to keep the original sound of the explosion!
That is what I said in my second sentence. The sun was supplying bright light, then when the fuel ignited it provided another light source that was brighter than the sun in that location. The camera had to auto adjust for this flash of bright light which makes the video look as though the scene darkened.
i was standing on the henderson side watching this thing burn. remember seeing the mushroom cloud and thought it all was over. shockwave hit us like a sledgehammer. blew all our windows out. what a fun day!!!
Two people died - One wheelchair-bound worker who couldn't escape, and a Polio-afflicted worker who would not have been able to escape either, and as such who stayed behind and warned emergency services.
Because it was such a powerful explosion it blasted incoming light from the sun away from the epicenter so you could not see it. Kinda like a black hole in reverse.
Ha just kidding. It was prolly just the camera auto adjusting for the flash of light.
Well I am not sure what post this comment was in response to, but yes light can bend.
You can bend light with lenses, or at the intersection of two transparent mediums that have different indexes of refraction. Like between water and air.
Light can be bent by gravity too. There is a giant planet that is directly between us and a star, millions of light years away. Astronomers can see the stars light behind the planet, because the planets gravity bends the light toward earth.
I lived a few miles from where this happened in a neighborhood in Green Valley in Henderson. Scary as hell. Our front door was knocked off it's frame and the garage doors were bent up and tile shingles were blown off the roof from the power of the shockwave. When we looked outside the mushroom cloud looked just like that of a nuclear explosion. This video gives me chills reminding me of that day. It was pretty intense being there when it happened.
I'm glad someone posted a copy without sound editing. It's ridiculous when you see the explosion and hear the shockwave at the same time in other vids. Hollywood physics...
Stats: Stored there was million pounds of Ammonium Perchlorate, Expl reg 3.6 on Richter scale, equivalent to 1.5 Mega-Ton Nuke. It almost blew a Southwest 737 that was on approach to McCarran out of the sky 6 miles away. Blew out windows in 5 mile radius. left a 200' crater. leveled a marshmellow plant that u can see in the footage that was 2500' away. Caused 700 million dollars in damage not including the plant itself, and only 1 person died, the plant manager. Why do I know this?..I'm a GEEK
well actually your not a geek, a lot of what you sid was correct but innaccurate, and 2 people died, the man who was crippled by polio and stayed behind to call 911 and a man in a wheelchair who couldnt escape the facility fast enough.
2 People died... a man in a wheelchair that couldn't get out in time, and Roy Westerfield, the man who opted to stay behind (he had polio) to call the authorities to warn them.
Also, 1.5 kilo-tons. The guys recording this would not have survived a 1-megaton explosion ( although a 1 mt non-nuclear explosion would be very cool to see).
Explosion happened in 1988. After the space program was shutdown after the Challenger Disaster, PEPCON continued to produce the oxidiser and it accumulated in the area of the plant. The fire started from a welding spark and spread quickly.
I was roughly 5 miles away from this when it went off.loudest thing I have ever heard.blew out windows and caved in ceiling tiles 5 miles away.bad buzz indeed.
anger4bill 2 weeks ago
@anger4bill i heard it affected up to a 10-mile radius. is it only 1 kiloton?
punishalltrolls 4 days ago
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@anger4bill i heard it affected up to a 10-mile radius. is it only 1 kiloton?
punishalltrolls 4 days ago
damn interesting
SoapWalrus 2 months ago
Well ain't that a kick in the head.
galacticninja7 3 months ago
my teacher told us about this, he said his front door flew inside his house when the shockwave hit lol.
mrsaucy1112 3 months ago
PEPCON is in the Fallout games 3 and New Vegas. to make sure they didn't get sued Obsideon Entertainment changed the P into an R and added an N to the ending.
000EmObOy000 4 months ago
Pepcon= fail
xboxlivers 5 months ago
What did I say? That wasn't me that said that a second explosion was added to make it more dramatic
seth5220 5 months ago
I was living there when this happened, I don't recall any od the explosions sounds to be fake on the other video. This was really a horrible day to remember!
ZoeyRainsMom 6 months ago
so whats caused it the chemicals in that plant wernt ment to explode and burn ?
SensitiveVirmin1234 6 months ago
doesnt the guy in the beginning sound like sylvester stallone? at 0:03
PureTamil 6 months ago
I've recently watched this on Discovery in "Destroyed in Seconds". They added a blast sound to make it more impressive... too bad they did that simultaneous to the visible explosion. THIS is what makes the difference between documentations and TV shows on Discovery Channel.
NFSHeld 6 months ago
@NFSHeld You are completely incorrect. I was teaching at a Henderson school when this occurred. It was even worse than this experiencing it in the raw. Where did you get your information from regarding "ADDED a blast sound?" It was from a faulty source for sure.
principles101 4 weeks ago
@principles101 I guess you'd agree with me if you understood what I wrote :) I said that this video was also on Discovery Channel in the show "Destroyed in Seconds". However, they (DC) edited a blast sound into the video: the audible bang occured in the same second like the visible blow up. This is how you know that it was edited into the footage. Then I said that such matters are the difference between documentations and DC TV shows made for the awe of its audience, and criticized DC for that.
NFSHeld 4 weeks ago
@NFSHeld Thank you for clarifying:) Got it.
principles101 3 weeks ago
O.o. Booooooom
PUppENchUCky 6 months ago
Just saw this video on Smash Cuts, I hate how they added a fake explosion sound effect in the show the second the explosion was visible.
greendaylover12345 7 months ago
i love how right behind the rocket fuel plant there was a marshmallow factory god bless amercia!!!!
FuriousPumpkin 7 months ago
@FuriousPumpkin God Bless America!
usjta 7 months ago
0:53 - 0:57. "Wow! Those sons of a bitch are loud!"
HankAmericanEngine 7 months ago
The Tsar Bombe, the worlds biggest H bomb, tested by the Soviets was 57,000 times bigger than this.
SvenTviking 7 months ago
kClO4 ftw
fabsz1 8 months ago
It was very loud. I heard it from miles away and it was scary loud
motogpfan46rossi 9 months ago
Remember it very very well. I was 7 yrs old In 1st grade walking from my classroom to the lunch room when we heard the big kaboom! Rushed into the lunchroom and everyone got under the tables. My parents left wrk, came and picked me up and we went home and out living room window was broken . It was a day I'll never forget. I lived about 10 miles away from pepcon. They sponsored my pop Warner team that year lol
motogpfan46rossi 9 months ago
I've beaten fallout new Vegas three time and I live in las Vegas and I never realized until now that the repcon rocket facility in the is actually based off pepcon rocket fuel plant. God I'm slow.
updisho 9 months ago
Wow it took 10 seconds for the shockwave to reach them
seth5220 10 months ago
@seth5220 hmmm 10 seconds for shock wave but immediate sound, interesting
mal757 5 months ago
Only one person died in the Pepcon explosion, a Pepcon employee (who was handicapped and in a wheelchair) that stayed behind to call ALL the local Fire Departments. The large explosion was the 12' gas main for all of Clark County Nevada which stupid Pepcon built their solid rocket fuel plant over. I was there...
NungaBIZ 10 months ago
i wonder if they figured out how powerful that explosion was like in kilotons or what the magnitude was on the ricter scale. ammonium perchlorate is crazy shit
AneierHSNO4 10 months ago
@AneierHSNO4 I think this registered a 3.8 on the ricter scale, from a geology station 60 miles away. This thing was bigger than many types of tactical nukes.(P.S. those people in that car by the road are seriously screwed) :(
Madgardener0 10 months ago
@AneierHSNO4
"Further investigation into the event found that the destructive energy from the larger explosion was roughly equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT, or one kiloton."
n0rton 9 months ago
O.o <--- camera man (first explosion) 0.0 <--- the guy behind the camera man (second explosion)
skullcrush67 10 months ago
Sweet doppler effect.
CorporateG0th 11 months ago
anyone play fallout.... located by vegas PEPCON REPCON
MIK3Yproductionz 11 months ago 2
is this the raw??
scarycatsscaringcats 11 months ago
You guys have to remember there was shit frame rate in 1988 when this happened...
destromae 11 months ago
wow! that gonna be *something about a bitch* low! at 0:51
mogerdog 11 months ago
Is that why they called place in Fallout New Vegas "REPCONN"
james79310 11 months ago
They're only now attempting to ban perchlorate in drinking water. President Bush refused to do so - would it have harmed his friends' business profits?
catchersmitt0 1 year ago
If that same explosion were to happen today the area aound s all build up now there would be thousands hurt and hundreds died
jmcclelland85 1 year ago
"Oooooh. Thats gonna be loud..."
SETHWANTSAHUG 1 year ago
I was there. Grew up in Green Valley and was in school at Estes Mcdonnell elementary, about 2 miles away. It was scarry. We evacuated after the second explosion. Broke all of the windows in our house, as well as most of the neighbors. Two people died. Only the old school Hendersonites can say they were there when Pepcon exploded.
kirklandgroup 1 year ago
@kirklandgroup If that same explosion were to happen today the area around s all build up now there would be thousands hurt and hundreds died
jmcclelland85 1 year ago
dayum!!!
xalthus 1 year ago
衝撃波・・・！
rx3705 1 year ago
TERRORIST WIN
HABRADASHR 1 year ago
0:50 thats what happens when someone tries to divide by zero
Tovarsexto 1 year ago
@Tovarsexto lollllllll that's what my math teacher told me lol
shankman2000 1 year ago
that was amazing at 0:50
luigjj123 1 year ago
Uhh..that´s gonna be Loud...!! XD
Zugvogel1 1 year ago
in fallout new vegas this place is called repconn. i thought that was awesome...
superextremelaser 1 year ago
When I tilt my camcorder towards the sun it usually takes a couple seconds to adjust to the light (and go dark). On the second explosion, the camera switches between light and dark instantly. That's one bright explosion...
Oh also, @ww77 I heard that it was a spark from a welding equipment that initially caused the fire.
Ingestedbanjo 1 year ago
When I tilt my camcorder towards the sun it usually takes a couple seconds to adjust to the light (and go dark). On the second explosion, the camera switches between light and dark instantly. That's one bright explosion...
Ingestedbanjo 1 year ago
I heard that the 2nd explosion had the explosive power equal to a very small, tactical nuclear weapon?
youngdones 1 year ago
Wow those sonofabitches are LOUD!!
Nivicoman 1 year ago
And this is why they don't let you smoke within 20 feet of doors and windows.
vw77 1 year ago
...that clumsy Joe Dirt...
DancingSpiderman 1 year ago
chuck norris had beans for lunch
menatwar 1 year ago 14
@menatwar You mean Chuck Norris farts out burning ammonium perchlorate? lol
Zirocket8 9 months ago
haha anybody else think the guys in this video sound like cheech and chong?!
sm00fy 1 year ago
Why was Tommy Chong on the top of the mountain? you hear him on the tape he says "thats gonna be loud"
master582 1 year ago
Many people don't remember a book called, "HENDERSON BOOM TOWN". It was book of cartoons depicting what happened that day. I did the cartoons, printed and published the book, only 200 copies. They sold out in two weeks with very little advertising. A few officials at city hall were upset with me for printing the book so I decided not to do a second run. There's more to the story, but we won't go into that now. I just thought someone might be interested in seeing those cartoons from 1988.
bgarbacz 1 year ago
I'm not surprised
the world is a child with matches
666malaki 1 year ago
This company is owned by AMPAC. I used to work for them, not in the perchlorate plant, but in another chemical plant. The company's a fucking joke and their safety program is equivalent to a deaf and blind retard trying to compete in a rally-car race. They rebuilt this plant elsewhere and another explosion happened there in 1997 that killed someone else. Wiki says Pepcon happened because welding sparks ignited perchlorate residue. You'd think they'd wash down the area b4 hot-work. Idiots.
Tommyc1923 1 year ago
sucks for them if they didn't have some damn good insurance.
mbcNOOFS 1 year ago
@mbcNOOFS
LOL. Wiki says they only had 1 million in insurance and their lawsuit settlements totaled 71 million. Fucking idiots.
Tommyc1923 1 year ago
@Tommyc1923 holy shit... I'm glad that wasn't my company.
mbcNOOFS 1 year ago
Can Gieko save you $20 a month on insurance?
.......
Does this explosion make you shit your pants?
Demonic815 1 year ago
0:51 no chemicals, just a falcon punch
TrainsforGTA 1 year ago
Tommy - the death toll was 2. I lived in Henderson when PepCon blew - I hope I never have to live through anything like it again.
1Ocqueoc 1 year ago
Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be ... oh ... well, I gues that'll do.
aseglkj 1 year ago
how far away we're the people that filmed it?? i am surprised about how fast the blast sound reaches them
meDJSIRIUS 1 year ago
@meDJSIRIUS the speed of sound is ~340m/s ... the sound takes about 10 seconds to reach them after the explosion ... hmm ... let's see ... can you figure it out?
aseglkj 1 year ago
@meDJSIRIUS They were about 2 miles away on top of Black Mountain.
ImDiscombobulated 1 year ago
was that an M80 exploding? I think black cats are the best firecrackers!
STILLNAKEDBULLWINKLE 1 year ago
0:50, thats what happens when you mix me and the worst video ever
CAZZERNERY 1 year ago
@Riggs747: They remastered it for TV. They essentially created interframes where none existed before; it looks smoother, but it contains no more information than the original film, this one.
puncheex 1 year ago
thatw as either an explosion or some fat guy just had curry
spiderwebster 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
whats with the frame at :51, it looks like it is from a different explosion. The death toll has never accurately been counted.
TommyVercettiJK 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK
It's just a really low framerate. There's nothing I can about it though.
elementc 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK: 2 people died, 375 wounded. They cut long poieces out of the video to get to the exciting parts.
puncheex 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK Yes it has been counted correctly. There were two explosions the second being larger than the first.
RS1963 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK yes it has, the death toll was 2
TMKQueen 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK
Only 1.
micprn 1 year ago
@micprn
There were two deaths- a wheelchair-confined worker, and Roy Westerfield, who made the initial 911 call to the fire deartment when the fire first started. Roy was crippled by polio earlier in his life and was unable to get out in time.
Inferno1812 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK The flash from the explosion overwhelmed the camera, and blacked out the background - if you look closely, you can still see the marshmallow plant in the background to the left. The death toll was counted perfectly well. It killed two people. I watched it happen from a revetment at Nellis AFB, and was part of the emergency response to the accident.
OakRidgeBob 1 year ago
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@TommyVercettiJK @TommyVercettiJK The flash from where the flash from the explosion overwhelmed the camera, and blacked out the background - if you look closely, you can still see the marshmallow plant in the background to the left. The death toll was counted perfectly well. It killed two people. I watched it happen from a revetment at Nellis AFB, and was part of the emergency response to the accident.
OakRidgeBob 1 year ago
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@TommyVercettiJK The flash from where the flash from the explosion overwhelmed the camera, and blacked out the background - if you look closely, you can still see the marshmallow plant in the background to the left. The death toll was counted perfectly well. It killed two people. I watched it happen from a revetment at Nellis AFB, and was part of the emergency response to the accident.
OakRidgeBob 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK
If you look closely at :51 then :50 and :52, you can see the building off to the left of the explosion in :51. I lived in Las Vegas when this happened and our business was near McCarran airport. We stood and watched this entire thing evolve. Our view was almost exactly the same as this video. The factory was located in a valley and most of the area surrounding it was at higher elevations. We stood in the parking lot in front of our store and had an unobstructed view.
subsailor405 1 year ago
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subsailor405 1 year ago
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subsailor405 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK it was counted at 2 at the plant
Ghardskingdom 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK The Pepcon explosion in Nevada... Only one person died, he was in a wheel chair and did not get out (my grandmother went to his funeral) I was here and saw the cloud from the explosion and felt the explosion. I don't recall anyone else dieing... but it's been a really long time since it happened.
houseorchid 1 year ago
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@TommyVercettiJK The Pepcon explosion in Nevada... Only one person died, he was in a wheel chair and did not get out (my grandmother went to his funeral) I was here and saw the cloud from the explosion and felt the it. I don't recall anyone else dieing... but it's been a really long time since it happened.
houseorchid 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK
its not a frame from a different explosion. look at the building on the left. the explosion is just too bright for the camera. its clearly an old one, VHS or something like that.
splejx 1 year ago 31
@splejx
most cameras, adjust to light exposures, that means, if its dark, it will take more light for a clearer, brighter, image, if its bright, it will absorb less, making a darker picture, for that split second, it auto adjusted to the flash of the blast
the deathtoll was at least 1 factory worker
one worker stayed behind to make sure everyone evacuated, he also tried to save the plant, but sadly, that blast you see, was the final light he saw
TheDrasticProduction 9 months ago
@TommyVercettiJK Only one man died.
2142Unknown 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK Sure it has, 2 dead 372 injured. Pepcon was out in the desert near Henderson Nevada.
Postie218 1 year ago
@TommyVercettiJK The explosion was so bright, the camera did an auto level adjustment so it's all black and all you can see is the bright explosion.
WolfCoder 10 months ago
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uhh.... only 2 were killed "The death toll has never accurately been counted." not sure where you heard that...
cryflame 9 months ago
@TommyVercettiJK
most cameras, adjust to light exposures, that means, if its dark, it will take more light for a clearer, brighter, image, if its bright, it will absorb less, making a darker picture, for that split second, it auto adjusted to the flash of the blast
the deathtoll was at least 1 factory worker
one worker stayed behind to make sure everyone evacuated, he also tried to save the plant, but sadly, that blast you see, was the final light he saw
TheDrasticProduction 9 months ago
@TommyVercettiJK The official incident report says there were only 2 deaths, both workers in the Pepco factory- one in a wheelchair and one called the fire department. It took them 6 hours to find out however.
GTRachel 8 months ago
@TommyVercettiJK IT WAS A SECOND EXPLOSION SMART ONE!
thelisreal 8 months ago
@TommyVercettiJK : What i have heard it was only 1 who died and that was the guy in the wheelchair that called the firedept.
Tauri1980 7 months ago
ooohhhhh, thats going to loud!!!!
ogdano 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@steelpanther33 your wrong buddy i met one of the firelighters one day in high school they came dwn and did a whole presentation on what happened tht day. In 1998 it was pretty well developed in tht area. It would have been even more horrific than it was in 88..
slimES104block 1 year ago
That was largest FAE ever in history hands down after first explosion the air and fuel mixed perfectly to creat conditions perfect for second explosion.....I have never seen not even all the weapons US Military detonated in Iraq equal to this only tactical nuke this had to be at least 1 to 2 kilotons. Well---yeah sorry those suicide bombers that huge truck but not this big!
deltaalpha21074 1 year ago
Pause at 0:50
MrShammalamma 1 year ago
Chuck norris was there
Ashairaxi 1 year ago
this video sucks, there is the original with out this 10 fps crap.
grendel1980 1 year ago
damn straight
TheSpeedySteve 1 year ago
the exact date was may 1988 i was in high school when this happened .everyone at school thought it was the end of the world ..the mushroom cloud could be seen for miles.the damage from the aftershock was many miles and windows in north las vegas were broken
namffocevets 1 year ago
it was 1988 not 98, i was born that year and my parents house was damage buy it when i was a baby
tslater131 1 year ago
I love this video it's a great example of the different between speed of light and speed of sound. "That's gonna be loud."
dream6601 1 year ago
"Uuuhh.... that gonna be loud" XD
Zugvogel1 1 year ago 2
I remember this.. I was in 1st grade lol. We lived in Las Vegas and felt both explosions. Its funny because now there is an Ocean Spray factory where the Pepcon building was and the area is surrounded by houses now. This explosion wiped out the marshmallow factory next door. RIP marshmallow factory... you will always be missed.
dvincent1984 1 year ago 3
The sound arrived about eight seconds after, so they were around 1.6 miles away.
pchapman905 1 year ago
Steel.... the date of that was May 4, 1988. I know because my dad was inside the building when it went up, and I was in 7th grade at Burkholder junior high 2.5 miles away. The date is burned into my head, and I STILL get goosebumps watching any video of it.
dyingbreed779 1 year ago
I'm surprised those shockwaves did not knock them 10 feet in the air. They must be really far away and zoomed in. An accidental explosion that big can take away 26% of hearing.
Finalflash50 1 year ago
This dangerous science experiment shows that light travels faster than sound; we see the explosion before we hear it, providing some warning to cover your ears.
fruitpunchesaregood1 1 year ago 2
Im lost on the origin of the bending light argument, too .. BUT..
In a massive blast the intense pressure and heat, and the atmospheric effects they cause around the initial blast CAN cause light to "bend", much like "mirages" on a hot road surface.
I noticed some effects like that in a EOD video some time ago, and some nuke tests.
drak1970 1 year ago
how come when it explodes it goes dark
and whats that thing on the ground that goes outwards?
im a science noob but this seems interesting to me :D answer plz
Willpiggy 1 year ago
That's the shockwave. Explosive force is measured at m/s (how fast the blast expands, I think TNT is somewhere around 6200 m/s). So it is the expansion and heating of gases from the point of origin going outward in laymans terms. (off the top of my head. Look up Explosive shockwave definition for somethin more in-depth)
jumper0888 1 year ago
@jumper0888: Pretty much correct. It's the sound/shock wave spreading outwards like a bubble. When it reaches the camera after about 8 seconds they get the boom. The detonation speed is only within a block of the chemical; the parts may come out of the explosion at supersonic speeds, but the b last wave is the air, and it can't propagate faster than the speed of sound, about 0.2 miles/sec.
puncheex 1 year ago
has nothing to do with science as you think. Its simply because the camera is auto adjusting for the brightness of the explosion. lol. you can replicate this by pointsing your cell phone camera at a bright lamp...or the sun. (warning, sun may damage the camera optics)
bmg50barrett 1 year ago
It suddenly becomes much brighter, so the camera adjusts itself to avoid picture overexposure. Without this effect you would see only white.
Azarien 1 year ago 7
At least this is real, the stupid "Destroyed in Seconds" TV show version of this was edited to make the explosion and the sound occur at the same time even though the video was taken from miles away.
dhughes1969 1 year ago 78
@dhughes1969 I know right
Mendelevium146 1 year ago
@dhughes1969, i hate shit like that. and who needs some d-head talking about it?
jen8933 1 year ago
@dhughes1969
I hate it when they do that.
guitarnublet 1 year ago
@dhughes1969 Even "realistic" video games are guilty of the same thing. Insta-sound ruins the whole experience. Sound delay from distant explosions is just cool! The TV show version didn't even bother to keep the original sound of the explosion!
TheFerruccio 1 year ago
@dhughes1969 I was saying that same thing. It violates the laws of physics.
nappybiscuit 11 months ago
That is what I said in my second sentence. The sun was supplying bright light, then when the fuel ignited it provided another light source that was brighter than the sun in that location. The camera had to auto adjust for this flash of bright light which makes the video look as though the scene darkened.
karozans 1 year ago
I was nowhere near there, so don't even start.
theunknownknows 2 years ago
i was standing on the henderson side watching this thing burn. remember seeing the mushroom cloud and thought it all was over. shockwave hit us like a sledgehammer. blew all our windows out. what a fun day!!!
sewajermax 2 years ago
too bad bout the marshmallow plant
drstiles1234 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
wow so easy a caveman can do it
ChaddyRay 2 years ago
@ChaddyRay I don't really get the joke.
elementc 2 years ago 52
did anyone die from this?
kozarman3 2 years ago
No, everyone lived happily ever after.
Of COURSE people died. That's the horrible fact of the REAL world.
roushguy08 2 years ago
Two people died - One wheelchair-bound worker who couldn't escape, and a Polio-afflicted worker who would not have been able to escape either, and as such who stayed behind and warned emergency services.
nightwing36s 2 years ago
that was so awsome
twilightgirl518 2 years ago
why did everything turn dark?
klopezusc 2 years ago
Because it was such a powerful explosion it blasted incoming light from the sun away from the epicenter so you could not see it. Kinda like a black hole in reverse.
Ha just kidding. It was prolly just the camera auto adjusting for the flash of light.
karozans 2 years ago 2
Hahaha, the range of reactions I went through reading this post. :D
carlsaischa 2 years ago
light cant bend mate
nice try tho
LizzyAston 1 year ago
@LizzyAston
Well I am not sure what post this comment was in response to, but yes light can bend.
You can bend light with lenses, or at the intersection of two transparent mediums that have different indexes of refraction. Like between water and air.
Light can be bent by gravity too. There is a giant planet that is directly between us and a star, millions of light years away. Astronomers can see the stars light behind the planet, because the planets gravity bends the light toward earth.
karozans 1 year ago
yea gravity can bend light, i was hoping you didnt know that
but i disagree with the previous point
LizzyAston 1 year ago
@LizzyAston
Which point? If you are talking about the one about me saying that the blast "forced" the light away, that was a joke.
karozans 1 year ago
It can, but the energies neccessary is not contained in the explosion.
VoodooChi 1 year ago
gravity and that? up down down?
LizzyAston 1 year ago
That blowed up good.
glimmer2158 2 years ago
I lived a few miles from where this happened in a neighborhood in Green Valley in Henderson. Scary as hell. Our front door was knocked off it's frame and the garage doors were bent up and tile shingles were blown off the roof from the power of the shockwave. When we looked outside the mushroom cloud looked just like that of a nuclear explosion. This video gives me chills reminding me of that day. It was pretty intense being there when it happened.
gsumike1 2 years ago
holy shit!!! that is the biggest explosion in us history i think!!
fouurnall 2 years ago
Besides nuke tests, and nuclear-simulation tests, there've been 2 industrial accidents in the US with greater yields.
filodipicori 1 year ago
Wow! Where? Was one Texas City?
oldaardvark 1 year ago
Texas City was one, the other was the Port Chicago Disaster during WWII.
filodipicori 1 year ago
nigleman that was 600 hundred miles away not 100
deathtouch100 2 years ago
11 million lbs of rocket fuel... That sucked.
Second largest non-nuclear explosion ever caused by humans (Fairfax explosion was, ahem, a little bit larger).
Was caused by a ruptured gas main that caught fire.
SarraPiyopiyo 2 years ago
boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom
Lino1259 2 years ago
i saw this on discovery channel and learnrd that the people who were recording got about 40% deaf after the explosions
Wabitfan 2 years ago
one guy said 27% loss
joshua12345676 2 years ago
whats weird is the version of this video with edited sound have better visual quality... whats up with that
PsuPepperoni 2 years ago
I'm glad someone posted a copy without sound editing. It's ridiculous when you see the explosion and hear the shockwave at the same time in other vids. Hollywood physics...
copyhut 2 years ago 21
yes you're right. i much prefer the real anticipation of waiting for the shockwave to hear the sound, rather than hollywood edit.
checkfoldcallraise 2 years ago 2
Stats: Stored there was million pounds of Ammonium Perchlorate, Expl reg 3.6 on Richter scale, equivalent to 1.5 Mega-Ton Nuke. It almost blew a Southwest 737 that was on approach to McCarran out of the sky 6 miles away. Blew out windows in 5 mile radius. left a 200' crater. leveled a marshmellow plant that u can see in the footage that was 2500' away. Caused 700 million dollars in damage not including the plant itself, and only 1 person died, the plant manager. Why do I know this?..I'm a GEEK
bevis315 2 years ago
on a video that i saw else where on y.t and discovery they say it was 5 on the richter scale.....
xlbyg07 2 years ago
well actually your not a geek, a lot of what you sid was correct but innaccurate, and 2 people died, the man who was crippled by polio and stayed behind to call 911 and a man in a wheelchair who couldnt escape the facility fast enough.
nigleman 2 years ago
nice genious. Now go get a scholarship! :P
smoshrock1 2 years ago
2 People died... a man in a wheelchair that couldn't get out in time, and Roy Westerfield, the man who opted to stay behind (he had polio) to call the authorities to warn them.
I'M A BIGGER GEEK! =3
DragonMaster1230 2 years ago
Damnit, that must have sucked.
Jagguar20 2 years ago
Or you read the article on DI
mmysama 2 years ago
Also, 1.5 kilo-tons. The guys recording this would not have survived a 1-megaton explosion ( although a 1 mt non-nuclear explosion would be very cool to see).
filodipicori 1 year ago
Explosion happened in 1988. After the space program was shutdown after the Challenger Disaster, PEPCON continued to produce the oxidiser and it accumulated in the area of the plant. The fire started from a welding spark and spread quickly.
yehend 2 years ago
it only takes 1 spark.....I wonder if it was picked up as an earthquake....
ftjax 2 years ago
yep
jbee02 2 years ago
It was, actually. Something like 3 on the richter scale :P
LillaKrisu 2 years ago