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

 

[Super-Chevy454]

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

I think some Hezbollah members might dissapear or get an "accident".

 

[Meriasek]

That was in no way the low energy explosives that go into fireworks.

Dunno, this is footage from the 2000 accident in Enschede, Netherlands, where a fireworks plant went pewpew.

The little blasts look very similar.

 

[not william stenchever]

So it looks like all the ground under the disintegrated warehouse got fucking yeeted into the harbor by the downwards force of the explosion. I'm no master of piloting ships into dock but that's got to be some kind of navigation hazard

 

[CervixHammer]

this looks safe. anyone else want a cigare-

 

[Stoneheart]

this looks safe. anyone else want a cigare-

well they used to use Explosives to desolidify big chunks of this stuff, till some german town blew up in 1921.

this is also very clearly a chemical explosion and it wasnt high grade explosives.
i would guess they got realy lucky with just a partial explosion.

 

[Noideawhattopick]

View attachment 1497106
this looks safe. anyone else want a cigare-
View attachment 1497101

Hmm seems like it's not what I thought it was

 

[Foltest]

I read the that custom knew about this and tried to get those in charge of the stuff to get rid of it for years. They knew something bad would happen but they never got a replay.

 

[cjöcker]

On the evening of 4 August 2020, at 18:08 EEST, multiple explosions occurred in the city of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. The blasts occurred at the Port of Beirut and left at least 100 people dead and at least 4,000 injured. Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 people were left homeless by the explosions.
The main explosion was linked to approximately 2,750 tonnes (3,030 short tons) of ammonium nitrate that had been confiscated by the government from an abandoned ship and stored in the port without safety measures for the previous six years.

From Wikipedia


People have been recording themselves getting fucking vaporized.

 

[cjöcker]

Spoiler: Leaked footage of the events leading up to the explosions

 

[Distant Stare]

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

The explosion was at 11 am EST. What time is the radiation spike? For fallout it should be at least a few hours.

If there was potassium or thorium in the explosion that would explain it. Thorium is some times used in industrial applications and welding. I could see it being at the port. Potassium is very common as a salt in pyrotechnics and is slightly radioactive.

 

[Getting tard comed]

As stupid as the decision to keep large amounts of highly explosive material in the same place and then to openly weld in the same building that contains said material, I'm reminded of the bridge fire in Atlanta that happened a year or two ago where some smooth brain stacked highly inflammable material under a bridge because they thought inflammable meant it couldn't catch fire.

The world is getting stupider.

 

[Kosher Salt]

The explosion was at 11 am EST. What time is the radiation spike? For fallout it should be at least a few hours.

If there was potassium or thorium in the explosion that would explain it. Thorium is some times used in industrial applications and welding. I could see it being at the port. Potassium is very common as a salt in pyrotechnics and is slightly radioactive.

The much, much closer station in Israel hasn't indicated any abnormal radiation levels, so I'm disinclined to think that the radiation spike near Italy could've been related to the blast.

 

[jje100010001]

Considering the generally poor state of Lebanon’s economy and its dysfunctional government, which is now compounded with massive property damage + personal injury and the destruction of its main port and grain silos, definitely worth monitoring down the road for butterflying second and third-level effects.

If you were barely getting by and the explosion blows out your windows and damages your computer/possessions, what are you going to do? That’s going to be a question for many who are living in the vicinity.

 

[WarJams]

View attachment 1497101

Sydney, Australia
UC 0079
Colorized

 

[Dante Alighieri]

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

A trebuchet would be more effective. 90kg over 300m.

 

[ToddleDoddle]

I hope the people responsible for keeping these highly volatile materials stored right next to a populated area are thrown in prison forever.

More likely though they will just find some scapegoat to take the punishment for all the death and destruction this caused.

 

[Cheese-Loving Citizen]

Now, I'm not exactly proficient in chemistry or the properties of ammonium nitrate or the government of the city...

...But how braindead do you have to be to store 2,750 tonnes worth of an apparently explosive chemical in a port in a capital city for six whole years and not, oh I don't know, move them out of the vicinity of thousands of innocent people and into a warehouse that has the capability to store these chemicals safer than a fucking port? Or at least somewhere where there would be way less innocent casualties if something went wrong?

Is moving a bunch of chemicals really that expensive? Or is the city's government just too poor to be able to do so?

 

[deepFriedBaka]

The real question that people should have been asking is who the fuck thought it was a good idea to store 2,500+ TONS of explosive ammonium nitrate near a fucking CITY??

 

[Wünderkind]

Crazy stuff, shows how misguided the constant hand wringing over citizen gun ownership is when moronic corporations and governments around the world mishandle explosive chemicals (which are ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more deadly) in this manner. What is the death toll as of now?

 

[jje100010001]

Now, I'm not exactly proficient in chemistry or the properties of ammonium nitrate or the government of the city...

...But how braindead do you have to be to store 2,750 tonnes worth of an apparently explosive chemical in a port in a capital city for six whole years and not, oh I don't know, move them out of the vicinity of thousands of innocent people and into a warehouse that has the capability to store these chemicals safer than a fucking port? Or at least somewhere where there would be way less innocent casualties if something went wrong?

Is moving a bunch of chemicals really that expensive? Or is the city's government just too poor to be able to do so?

Usually happens when the government is corrupt, weak, or inefficient enough to not have the reach to keep a tab on the situation. This was something that must have been lost in the bureaucracy, and it’s not surprising for a country that was basically coasting on momentum beforehand, with barely sufficient public services.

By all appearances the port disaster did not involve the usual suspects — Hezbollah, Israel, jihadist terrorism or the government of neighboring Syria. The truth seems to be both duller and more disturbing: Decades of rot at every level of Lebanon’s institutions destroyed Beirut’s port, much of the city, and far too many lives. It is precisely the banality behind the explosion that captures the particular punishment and humiliation heaped on Lebanon.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/opinion/beirut-explosions.html#click=https://t.co/SpKBJwB89E

Having pseudo-governments like Hezbollah tossed into the fray doesn’t help either. Does anyone have any information on Hezbollah’s control of the ports?