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

 

[TexOffender]

 

[Kane Lives]

New video showing both explosions (first explosion at 1:15):
https://twitter.com/techjoffrey/status/1291024666430234624
http://archive.md/mkD0d
beirut_explosions.mp4

Holy shit. It sounds terrifying up close. I hope the lady is okay.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

Russian news site has more info about the origin of explosives:
- Local media initially said it was a fireworks explosion
- Authorities preliminarily claim the cause of explosion to be the welding works at a warehouse, which had been storing 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate (ammonium salpeter) for 6 years. To avoid theft of the substance, harbor authorities decided to close small openings that trespassers could use to access the warehouse. Welding works caused fire, which led to an explosion.
- Ammonium salpeter was confiscated from the ship Rhosus in September, 2014. The cargo was shipped from Batumi to Mozambique. Confiscated cargo was stored at a warehouse on the 12th pier of Beirut harbor and had to be disposed of. Sailors on Rhosus claimed that the owner of the ship was a businessman from Khabarovsk, Igor Grechushkin. They say the owner announced bankruptcy and "actually abandoned the ship". The lawyers representing creditors had 3 arrest warrants for Rhosus, which flew the Moldovian flag.

Wikipedia already has a lot of info, including this fun detail:

Various customs officials had sent letters to judges requesting a resolution to the issue of the confiscated cargo, proposing that the ammonium nitrate either be exported, given to the Army, or sold to the private Lebanese Explosives Company. Letters had been sent on 27 June 2014, 5 December 2014, 6 May 2015, 20 May 2016, 13 October 2016, and 27 October 2017. One of the letters sent in 2016 noted that judges had not replied to previous requests, and "pleaded":

In view of the serious danger of keeping these goods in the hangar in unsuitable climatic conditions, we reaffirm our request to please request the marine agency to re-export these goods immediately to preserve the safety of the port and those working in it, or to look into agreeing to sell this amount

 

[HarveyMCR]

Wikipedia already has a lot of info, including this fun detail:

Now that’s a prophecy right there

 

[Behavioral Sink]

The amount of people who stood near windows and filmed the explosion instead of getting away wouldn't help reduce the injury count either.

How the largest mass-blinding in Canadian history birthed CNIB

One in 50 people in Halifax were blinded that day or suffered serious eye damage.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-explosion-canadian-national-institute-for-the-blind-imo-mont-blanc-1.3878921

 

[Dorsia.Reservation]

New video showing both explosions (first explosion at 1:15):
https://twitter.com/techjoffrey/status/1291024666430234624
http://archive.md/mkD0d

I keep seeing videos like this and wondering if the people filming are still alive.
It sounds like the lady in this one is telling the filming person to get inside or get back.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

I find it heatbreaking that a country that is catastrophically poor and hungry was sitting for years on a massive stockpile of thousands of tonnes of perfectly good fertilizer that could have been distributed and used, if not for corruption and greed. Instead of thousands of farmers being given sacks of free or subsidised fertilizer, to grow and sell and alleviate hunger and suffering, we have this happen.

Yeah, about that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosions#Damage

According to the Lebanese government, the city's second-largest grain elevator was destroyed, exacerbating food shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a severe financial crisis. About 15,000 tonnes of grain were destroyed, leaving the country with less than a month's worth of grain in reserve.

That is the big building next to the crater.

 

[spiritofamermaid]

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.

Tbf, English is dumb like that. Both flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. So while that's still dumb, I'm willing to cut him a little slack.

Edit: learned that they're not exactly the same thing, but to the layperson I would argue that difference is negligible.

 

[Cypher]

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?

If Hezbollah stores ammo in that port, then they're really fucking stupid, because many officials are coming out that they knew this was there for years, as they admired it was already confiscated AN. This wasn't hidden, or not logged. The port is also run by Saad Hariri’s circle, who even lives near it.

 

[корона-тян]

Batumis in Abkhazia my dude. South Ossetia is landlocked. Superficially speaking, theres a lot less conspiracy bs here and more incompetence and inefficient bureaucracy than anything else.

Batumi is in Adjara. Seat of the Georgian Constitutional Court, and the last place the Russians had a military presence before the war.

 

[Noideawhattopick]

Guys...

https://twitter.com/JasonMBrodsky/status/1291052928443260928?s=20

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1291049704747421696?s=20

Let's hope it's just a regular fire. As regular as it could be.

 

[Not Really Here]

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

To be fair you can say that about just about everything that has happened since 2016.

 

[soy_king]

Batumi is in Adjara. Seat of the Georgian Constitutional Court, and the last place the Russians had a military presence before the war.

Oh shit you're right I was thinking of Sukhumi.

 

[Safir]

The background:

Igor Grechushkin, a Russian (Cypriot national) ship owner has been scamming his sailors for years. He hired a new captain and crew in Turkey, and the ship, which already had a cargo of ammonium nitrate, made a long resupplying/refuelling stop in Greece before leaving for Beirut.

The cargo which was to be loaded in Beirut (road repair machinery) nearly destroyed the crappy ship, and the crew mutinied. The new captain realized the previous crew, having been scammed, had mutinied, cut their losses and quit, and they'd be similarly scammed and dumped in Mozambique with no money to return home.

They refused to sail for Mozambique, and the owner told them to go to Cyprus instead.

However, they owed the port docking fees and a fine for not taking the road repair machinery, and the ship was arrested by the Lebanese authorities. The owner abandoned it, most men were allowed to fly home, but four, including the captain, were kept as hostages. They wrote to the embassy, to the consulate, to Putin. Russia told them to stfu. The 64-year-old captain was having health problems and asked to be released, the Lebanese demanded another captain as a replacement hostage.

After 9 months of this, the men sold some fuel, hired a Lebanese lawyer, sued for release and wages, were released in 3 more months (no wages though) and flew home, with the cargo still on board. (The captain survived.)

 

[TowinKarz]

That is the big building next to the crater.

I'm amazed it stayed up, well, it's obviously ruined and could fall over at any moment, but, yeah, ground zero for a low-yield tactical nuclear-level explosion and it at least survived. I guess in disasters, reinforced concrete structures with no windows is your best bet.

Once I saw the flour pouring out of it and into the harbor, I immediately thought "Shit, how many meals just went up?" And if only the UN had a plan for emergency grain delivery instead of having wasted it's cash and mandates on arguing that the US should be sanctioned for not respecting transsexual lives enough....

And why is the shipping industry so full of thieves? Obviously the money, it was rhetorical. Maybe things like this can spur a little more oversight?

 

[GigaKike]

Hmm seems like it's not what I thought it was
View attachment 1497125

Fucking hell can't I go for a walk anymore?

 

[Iceland Heavy]

So the giant pile of fertilizer sitting there for over 6 years wasn't a secret but I wonder how many bystanders nearby actually knew. I imagine somebody had to have shat a brick when they saw smoke coming from that particular warehouse.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

I'm worried that if some terrorists might get the inspiration to get the same chemicals to cause a similar explosion

 

[Tikbalang]

Tbf, English is dumb like that. Both flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. So while that's still dumb, I'm willing to cut him a little slack.

Edit: learned that they're not exactly the same thing, but to the layperson I would argue that difference is negligible.

What about inflammation?

Now that’s a prophecy right there

In modern times we call it foreshadowing

 

[KingCoelacanth]

I'm worried that if some terrorists might get the inspiration to get the same chemicals to cause a similar explosion

Terrorists already know how to make more efficient, mobile bombs with easier to get materials