I've been waiting a while to actually do this post. Most residents of Henderson, Nevada have probably grown tired of the subject but in reflection it was a pretty awesome thing to see. So, with that said, I will recount from memory what I remember from 21 years ago today-the PEPCON Blast.
It was just a normal, quiet day at Fay Galloway Elementary School. If my memory serves me right, it might have even been a little overcast, but for the most part a clear day. I was in 5th grade and was working as a hall monitor but for some reason I was outside while everyone else was inside. I remember the big, huge black cloud billowing up from the valley below. Within moments, the largest explosion I have ever witnessed happened right before my eyes. I ran frantically into the building to tell someone and ran smack-dab into a teacher. I don't remember much after that except that the entire building was evacuated. Like most other kids at Fay Galloway, we thought that Kerr-McGee was on fire again, and since a majority of our parents worked there we were kind of scared. Of course, there were some boys that started reporting that it was either a) a crashed airplane that missed McCarran, or b) a nuclear attack from the Russians (we were still involved in the Cold War) that tried to take out Kerr-McGee which made the fuel for the fighter planes at Nellis Airforce Base. Nice, boys huh. Class was dismissed early and we got to go home. Our walls were cracked from the blast and we spent the rest of the day watching the footage being replayed over and over again on Channel 3 and 8. I had no idea at the time that it could be felt 600 miles away in Colorado.
Just in case you were wondering where PEPCON was exactly (I always have) I located a picture since it was so long ago and at the time it was out in the middle of no where surrounded by dirt and desert. I think they built Black Mountain Industrial Park over the old site.
Of course, if you want to, you can always look up the "PEPCON blast" footage on YouTube. It's still pretty incredible to watch, or you can wait until they show it again on Discovery's "Destroyed in Seconds".
4 comments:
WOW! I didn't realize it had been that long ago. I was in 1st grade I think at Fay Galloway. My parents front door still has small cracks in it from that blast. I remember that day quite well surprisingly. Thanks for the memory! :)
It was overcast. I was getting ready for p.m. kindergarden. Pretty crazy that it was so long ago. Remember the "I survived the Blast" shirts! Hahaha.
P.S. let's see some more dog pictures!
I was at lunch and had just sat down. The blast moved tables like rafts in a pool. I had something hit me in the back. It was a ring thingy(so I think) from arond the sprinklers. Seconds later I found myself helping younger kids and girls from my class out the cafateria door by the portables. I was fine until I reached the far wall where we were all directed too. At that point I could see the where the blast came from and thought my dad had been hurt. Within a nillisecond my eyes welled up and I cried out of true fear for the first time in my life. Fortunately he had the day off and was with my mom and baby sister. Mandy found me and told me she had talked to home and everything was okay and then so was I... I had the biggest crush on Nicki Scoble at the time... Mindy, don't tell her!
Emily...at the time of the blast you were in the bathtub and thought it was neat! Your dad and I ran outside to see what was going on after the first blast. Lloyd and Denise Himes, our neighbors across the street came running over. Lloyd had climbed up on the block wall to see if he could see anything because we were beginning to see the smoke, when the second blast hit and threw him off of the wall!
It was so scarry rushing to get you kids from school and not knowing what was going on. Running into the office, signing out your kids on yellow legal pads and getting the hell out of town just in case that cloud of smoke was toxic.
We put our Great Dane and Brittany in the van, loaded all of you inside with sleeping bags and blankets and headed towards Boulder City until we knew that it was safe to come home.
That was the beginning of the end for renting our house on Evergreen Street. I called that night to tell our landlord that his house was okay, no broken windows and no damage etc. He then said that he was glad that I had called and that on the following Saturday he was going to be bringing a buyer past the house and would need access!
Talk about having the rug pulled out from underneath us! He had offered us the house FIRST if he was ever going to sell it! I guess this was just another example of GET IT IN WRITING!!!!
All in all....I was sooo glad that none of you were hurt, that dad was home from work at the time that this all happened and that we were able to evacuate safely until it was time for us to all come home.
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