The chlorine leak that forced thousands of evacuations and sent hundreds of people to hospitals started through a pinhole.
Thursday marks 30 years since that pinhole at the Pioneer Chlor Alkali Co. plant near downtown Henderson grew in the early morning darkness.
“But the extent of how big the problem was really wasn’t known until things started to come into focus in daylight, when you can see this huge massive cloud out there lingering over the valley,” said Keith Rogers, a former Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter who responded to the contaminated area on the morning of May 6, 1991.
Estimates of how much chlorine was released have varied in reports over the years, but according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, about 70 tons escaped the plant, blanketing part of Henderson and eastern Las Vegas with a toxic green cloud.