Disaster Fireworks Warehouse Explosion in Beirut - Spoiler: It wasn't Fireworks it was 2,500+ tons of High-Explosive Ammonium Nitrate

Article (Archive)

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN)

A large explosion rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, damaging buildings and offices around the city.
The source of the explosion was a major fire at a warehouse for firecrackers near the port in Beirut, the state-run National News Agency reported.
A red cloud hung over the city in the wake of the blast as firefighting teams rushed to the scene to try to put out the fire.
Local news reported multiple people were wounded in the incident.
This is a breaking story, more to follow.

Twitter thread: https://mobile.twitter.com/tobiaschneider/status/1290670226934243329

Attaching all of the videos I grabbed from this guys twitter just now as well, here's one of them:

Here are some links to other posts in the thread with more content, you may need to go to the posts directly to see the media:

Spoiler: Two videos

Couple more angles of the explosions, seems everyone in Beirut holds their phone vertically. Buckle up for a very delayed boom in the second video.

Spoiler: Another angle, 'Allahu Ackbar'

Here's a different angle. Notice how the guys recording it say "Allahu Akbar".

EDIT: Direct embed

Spoiler: Slow Motion explosion

Found this slowmo of the explosion in which you can see the fireball and airblast more clearly

Spoiler: Two more videos

(edits: trying to get the spacing of text/video right; links to tweets)
I think this is just a slowed down version of this that I grabbed from twitter (https://twitter.com/saadmohseni/status/1290678176574779395):















Also this for another, closer angle (https://twitter.com/realdavereilly/status/1290690743217119235):

Spoiler: Lebanese Public Security: Not fireworks, High-Explosive Material

View attachment 1495099

And you retards thought putting it all in one place is a good idea?

Spoiler: Sodium Nitrate, PM's Wife and Daughter slightly injured in explosions, ISRAEL UNINVOLVED WE SWEAR

It was explosive sodium nitrate holy shit
View attachment 1495106

https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1290698269421600770

Israel denies involvement, Hezbollah says it wasn't their stuff, PM's wife and daughter injured
View attachment 1495109

https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1290703557797089281

Spoiler: Aftermath videos/photos

What remains of the dock:

Spoiler: Italy Radiation Spike

There’s a radiation spike picked up near Italy/scicily. Let me try to archive this or take a screenshot

http://archive.md/Nefcf

View attachment 1495413

Spoiler: 2 Minute Compilation Video

I know that there are several vids on here but here's a 2+ minute concatenation of multiple angles and some security camera footage of blast sites.

Spoiler: 2,700 TONS of Ammonia

View attachment 1495562
Translation: Preliminary security information talks about 2,700 tons of confiscated ammonia in the port exploded during the process of welding a small hole to prevent theft

 

[Aib Ld]

I probably missed it, but how did this set fire in the first place?

 

[Snekposter]

Well, you've got your average industrial accident in China or India. Bhopal was a pretty nasty one thanks to all that natural gas.

EDIT: @Ad Lib Moaning Official story is there was a hole that people could have used to get in and it was decided to weld it shut. Yep. Open torch welding, in a building filled with decomposing ammonium nitrate.

 

[Gamer Supreme]

I probably missed it, but how did this set fire in the first place?

Allegedly, it happened when a welder was sealing a hole in the warehouse.

 

[MrJokerRager]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pxcQieT2K20

He did make it sound conspiratorial for a bit.

 

[Aib Ld]

Official story is there was a hole that people could have used to get in and it was decided to weld it shut. Yep. Open torch welding, in building filled with decomposing ammonium nitrate.

haha what the fuck
Was welder one of people sneaking in the nitrate or a worker there?
EDIT: Holy shit, I wish I didn't think of the implication of that. Dude was probably atomized.

 

[kcbbq]

That explosion was Kino. Witnessing a blast like that comes once in a lifetime.

There's a coffee table book called 100 Suns, it's by Michael Light. It has images of every surface nuclear test the US ever did, from Trinity to the last fusion bombs. It's probably the best book of photography I own. It's kind of morbid, but it is absolutely beautiful. Whoever was shooting the photos for the government was really on top of things.

If that's correct, 2700 tons of Ammonia Nitrate at 0.42 relative effectiveness would be 1.134 kt. More if it's tonnes and not tons.

It wasn't all going to go up perfectly, but I buy the ~0.23kt estimate earlier in the thread. It was a big blast. Scary what incompetence can do.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

Lesse.... West, Texas City, Halifax, PEPCON, .... darn it, late to the party, can't add any other examples of "industrial accident that reached low-yield nuke levels of damage"

Tianjin was pretty big.

But that was a God Rod, one way or another; so I've been told.

 

[Farmer Y]

The amount of earth moved in this explosion is insane.


Before and after.

 

[thx1138]

I probably missed it, but how did this set fire in the first place?

They were welding over a hole previously cut in the building.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

They were welding over a hole previously cut in the building.

Or were actually the ones cutting into it, to steal some of that sweet sweet fertilizer for their own totally honest home uses. It's their thing to make everyone into martyrs; because islam.

 

[Fluoxetine Man]

It wasn't just fireworks..

Spoiler

IT WAS DIRTY FIREWORKS!

 

[Homersexual]

There's a coffee table book called 100 Suns, it's by Michael Light. It has images of every surface nuclear test the US ever did, from Trinity to the last fusion bombs. It's probably the best book of photography I own. It's kind of morbid, but it is absolutely beautiful. Whoever was shooting the photos for the government was really on top of things.
View attachment 1496569


It wasn't all going to go up perfectly, but I buy the ~0.23kt estimate earlier in the thread. It was a big blast. Scary what incompetence can do.

Speaking of 'murrica nuking shit. Former Bikini Atoll residents have a hardcore flag.

Spoiler: Explanation

 

[Buster O'Keefe]

Holy fuck, I remember hearing a 3000lb fertiliser bomb go off: it was miles away but still shook our windows and made the loft hatch pop. This boom was roughly 2000 times the size. JFC.
edit: maths fail

 

[Smug Cat]

Man JIDF is still pretty hurt about 2006

That very much reads like a Lebanese person. Hezbollah is not popular among the Lebanese.

 

[Borax Bozo]

What people miss is the main purpose of nukes is to put the Boom in a small deliverable package. Seeing as it’s difficult to launch an entire warehouse of tnt at a target.

I think I just had the dumbest vision of a catapult I've ever though of

 

[Otterly]

Wonder what will happen to the Hezbollah after this? Lebanon doesn’t want to go back the 80s...

 

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

Yep. Open torch welding, in a building filled with decomposing ammonium nitrate.

Man, I never would have guessed that Lebanon was hiring Chinese industrial workers

 

[The Bovinian Derivative]

2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, which was confiscated six years ago and had been left in an unsecured warehouse ever since

If you'd write a story and this was a plot point people would call you a hack writer.

 

[Cypher]

That very much reads like a Lebanese person. Hezbollah is not popular among the Lebanese.

Define Lebanese, because it’s such an utter nightmare of an ethnicity in the current year of our lord

 

[Dude Snakes]

That secondary explosion made me jump.