05/05/2026
📍May 4, 1988 | Wigwam Pkwy and Gibson Rd
38 years ago today, the ground shook in Henderson and nobody in the valley ever forgot it. 💥
May 4, 1988 — at Wigwam Parkway and Gibson Road, a welder’s torch ignited ammonium perchlorate at the PEPCON plant, triggering a series of explosions so massive the final blast registered 3.5 on the Richter scale and was felt across the entire Las Vegas Valley.
4,500 tons of rocket fuel oxidizer. Damage spanning a 10-mile radius — shattered windows, doors blown off hinges, collapsed ceilings, cracked walls. Seven miles away at McCarran, windows cracked and a Boeing 737 on final approach was jolted by the shockwave. The smoke was visible 100 miles away. It remains the most powerful civilian explosion in U.S. history.
Two lives lost. Over 370 injured. Nearly $100 million in damage.
Today that corner of Wigwam and Gibson is a thriving business district — Touro University, Ocean Spray, and corporate parks where total destruction once stood. No trace of what happened there 38 years ago.
Where were you when it happened? Drop it in the comments. 👇
We remember Roy Westerfield and Bruce Haulker. 🕊️
