Mad, looking at the Google maps of that area at least 8 big warehouses have vanished along with a big bit of the Dock
For those asking what on earth would you be doing with 240 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate, its probably the most common fertilizer. Even in the UK an average arrable farm probably gets through 5-10t of of it in a year. 240t of it is potentially just a few containers worth.
Not something you would want to store in a built up area for retrospectively obvious reasons but were talking about those big white sacks you see left in the corner of the field on your local XC loop, often with a patch of smouldering grass under them as a bit leaks out. Not something that typically gets an armed guard or particulalry special treatment.
the daily fail reported the fire was started by a welder.
For those asking what on earth would you be doing with 240 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate, its probably the most common fertilizer.
Which makes it odd that it was kept in storage for 6 years and not used as a fertilizer.
what on earth would you be doing with 240 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate
Prime Minister Hassan Diab said that about 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material, had been stored at a port warehouse for the past six years "without preventive measures."
the daily fail reported the fire was started by a welder.
Probably an immigrant welder at that.
Welding or 'hot work' is a major cause of industrial accidents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEPCON_disaster#Fire_and_explosions
Ship was impounded and abandoned by owners.
Cargo was stored next to a warehouse that stored fireworks.
Welder ignited fireworks >>> fireworks ignited ammonium nitrate
This is that Pepcon explosion
Prime Minister Hassan Diab said that about 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material, had been stored at a port warehouse for the past six years “without preventive measures.”
Sorry, I misquoted. Still doesn't seem like an abnormal amount when you consider the volumes of the stuff being shopped around the world on bulk transport ships.
Ship was impounded and abandoned by owners.>
From that:
Owing to the risks associated with retaining the Ammonium Nitrate on
board the vessel, the port authorities discharged the cargo onto the
port’s warehouses.
And left it there for four years. Next to the firework warehouse.
Did some Wikipedia reading on ammonium nitrate explosions, found my new favourite industrial accident. Workers used sticks of dynamite to loosen fertilizer that was packed in a silo, and loosen it they certainly did:
Odd they'd store it for so long, as said - surely it would be easier to flog it off to local agriculture, even if in smaller batches, make a bit of cash, free up some warehouse space and, a smaller amount of volatile stuff sat around... very odd.
mmm... but Lebanon's administration hasn't been the most... functional for the last few years, so it's no huge surprise it's just been sat there trapped in bureaucracy if nothing else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster
Not the first by any means. History easily forgets America’s worst industrial accident. You might like to note where the ship’s propeller ended up.
I couldn't believe the explosion being heard 150 miles away. Using the mile every 5s we used to consider as kids to work out how far the lightning was away, that's 12.5 mins before the bang.
That means if you could have seen the explosion at that distance, you'd have had time to run an extra mile and a half away from it (at 8 mins/mile which I reckon I could manage if running away from an explosion of that size, plus half a minute of WTF was that!)
History easily forgets America’s worst industrial accident. You might like to note where the ship’s propeller ended up.
Every time I do my fire training, there is a video from the states that is so ridiculous, it would be hard to make up.
Cargo was stored next to a warehouse that stored fireworks.
Welder ignited fireworks >>> fireworks ignited ammonium nitrate
There’s video from an apartment showing the initial fire, from nearer the actual port, and there are continual bright flashes in the smoke from fireworks going off, just before the AN went up, and there’s more video from a vessel further out from the port, and it shows the shockwave going up, then the column of smoke, looks just like the nuke tests at White Sands. I’ll see if I can find the article on boingboing.
Here it is, it compiles a number of videos shot by locals, along with the footage from the ship.
https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/massive-explosion-rocks-beirut.html
I have been moved to donate some cash for the people of Beirut, i have donated to the red cross as they appear on the ground.
There may or may not be better charities to donate but wanted to do something as small as it may be.
https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/beirut-emergency-appeal
For those asking what on earth would you be doing with 240 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate, its probably the most common fertilizer..
2700 ish tons, which is a tnt equiv of 250 ish tons. It degrades over time and becomes less stable too.
I couldn’t believe the explosion being heard 150 miles away
My gran told me that she could hear the fighting from the Somme at home in Surrey when she was little.
I couldn’t believe the explosion being heard 150 miles away
Mount St Helen's in 1980 was heard at about 200 miles. Krakatoa was 10 times that!
That amount of ammonium nitrate going up though, at rough chemistry calculations, is about 12 million cubic metres of gas produced in a fraction of a second. Just over a kiloton equivalent of TNT which is about 1/12th Hiroshima.
****ing big - bigger than any normal bomb short of a tactical nuclear weapon.
Every time I do my fire training, there is a video from the states that is so ridiculous, it would be hard to make up.
Trump defunded the CSB, so there wont be anymore of those videos unfortunately, they were great when you got stuck for a H&S example to talk about.
Aye, CSB videos were awesome, let's weld on top of this grain silo! My personal favourite was the petrol tanker driver who used gas burning gear to see inside his inspection hatch, see if there's any gasoline still in there... 😁
By jings, the lightning speed and accuracy of forensics explaining that destruction. I never cease to be amazed.
I watched the BBC4 program on Hirishoma last night. The scenes of devastation are very similar.
☹️
Part of my year out at university was with a major oil company. One of the things I helped on was explosion propagation on oil rigs. Counter-intuitively the more fixtures on a rig the quicker the propagation and the effects were stronger further away from the source. In short the constrictions between fixtures forced the energy through the gaps.
The same will have happened in the streets of Beirut with the buildings concentrating the energy and extending the range of damage.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-53680772
With a bit of time to collate all the photos and info, this article has some before/after shots and a bit more detail.
Some background history of the ship and it’s cargo. The whole ‘flag of convenience’ thing just encourages corrupt practices, and Moldova is the worst of the lot.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/beirut-explosion-ship-boat
True, but that doesn't absolve the Lebanese authorities of responsibility for the seized cargo.
Yup, the ship isn’t the problem. Sitting with your finger up your bum for 6 years doing nothing about the bomb in your warehouse is the problem
It feels like one of those things where nobody thought it'd be there for 6 years. Stick it in that warehouse for a week or two til the problem's sorted, won't take long.
😵
It feels like one of those things where nobody thought it’d be there for 6 years. Stick it in that warehouse for a week or two til the problem’s sorted, won’t take long.
Yup. Probably caught up in legal strife over who owns it and largely forgotten about.
Holy crap that slomo video! I remember watching slo mo guys playing with explosives and showing how water can amplify an explosion, certainly looks like what happened here. Bloody hell.
I'm sure storing it in those hot and humid conditions for years didn't help.
Genuinely, what's left to burn?
Fascinating reconstruction.
https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/beirut-port-explosion
https://twitter.com/bellingcat/status/1328652986789277696
