fascinatinghorror

The PEPCON Disaster

Added 2023-02-21 11:15:00 +0000 UTC

Here are a few side stories I came across while researching this disaster.

The marshmallow factory

The Kidd Marshmallow Factory was one of two industrial facilities (other than the PEPCON plant itself) that were destroyed in the explosion. Fortunately their staff were able to evacuate before the blast, and nobody was killed.

Better still, the factory was rebuilt on the same site, and almost all staff were able to keep their jobs. PEPCON might not have had an adequate insurance policy, but the marshmallow company did. Insurers paid the salary of workers while the plant was rebuilt, and many workers used their time to help good causes while waiting to return to work.

All in all, the story of the Kidd Marshmallow Factory is probably one of the more positive ones to come out of the PEPCON explosion.

An effective demonstration

This newspaper scrapbook, available via Henderson’s library service, is full of newspaper clippings about the disaster. It’s well worth a read, as the stories within offer a really detailed (and often personal) account of the explosion.

One piece that really stuck with me was a clipping that described a safety demonstration regularly given to workers at the plant. A uniform would be soaked in Ammonium Perchlorate, left to dry, and then set in the car park. A worker would throw a stone at it… and the friction of the impact would set the uniform alight.

The clipping credits this frightening demonstration with inspiring plant workers to flee as quickly as they did. I know for certain that it’d make me want to get out of there as fast as possible!