Huge Beirut explosion

RandallFlagg

Captured on video, that's a terrifying huge explosion in Beirut earlier today:

https://twitter.com/AbirGhattas/status/1290671474269986822

Barnezy

Wow... apparently a fireworks warehouse

Fretwired

Apparently a fireworks storage facility exploded ... looks appalling. Lots of casualties.

ThePrettyDamned

Some other footage is on other sites. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/aug/04/beirut-explosion-huge-blast-port-lebanon-capital

Terrifying. Reports are saying fireworks, but I wondered whether it could be ammunition making those bright pops. The huge explosion though, absolutely terrifying. 

ThePrettyDamned

Wonder how big the aid effort will be. 650 million quid or so went to notre dame - let's double it for this one. 

Cols

That’s horrific.  The damage is across a huge area and casualties are bound to be considerable.

I’m a bit skeptical about the ‘fireworks warehouse’ explanation.  It looks like a massive bomb.

RandallFlagg

Doesn't look like fireworks to me, chemical or gases?

ToneControl

tragic
must be hundreds or even thousands dead in that shock wave

RaymondLin

Barnezy said:

Wow... apparently a fireworks warehouse

Citing Twitter....

BREAKING — Director-General of the Lebanese Public Security: What happened [in Beirut] is not a fireworks explosion, but a high-explosive material that was confiscated for years — Al Jazeera

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu)

August 4, 2020

sodium nitrate

stickyfiddle

Really scary. I know a bunch of people over there. They shouldn’t have been in the area but I hope they’re ok.

It definitely looks very strange - Why would there ever be such a massive amount of explosives concentrated in a single location like that?

WiresDreamDisasters

Thousands wounded. 40 dead. Grim. All because of inappropriate storage. FFS.

RaymondLin

stickyfiddle said:

Really scary. I know a bunch of people over there. They shouldn’t have been in the area but I hope they’re ok.

It definitely looks very strange - Why would there ever be such a massive amount of explosives concentrated in a single location like that?

It was near the docks and “oh there’s a warehouse, it’ll be fine”

Dominic

Fireworks .......in Hezbollah controlled Lebanon 

digitalscream

They're now saying it was 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. That's a slightly more reasonable explanation than "fireworks".

ThorpyFX

So firstly it can be seen from the video that this started as a fire. There are intermittent flashes in the smoke as explosives “cook off” ie they are not detonating but deflagrating. The huge explosion (The red plume) is formed from some sort of nitrate explosive, I’d suggest it’s something like red fuming nitric acid..... which is a rocket fuel commonly used in soviet missiles. It could be ammonium nitrate but I don’t think it would be as scarlet as that...Anyway, that fuel doesn’t commonly detonate (albeit it is highly energetic)

 If it is stored in large quantities it can burn to detonation which is what we saw. The speed of the blast doesn’t look high enough for high explosives and as such the shattering effect of the explosive wasn’t as high, Thankfully.

It looks much worse than it is, and that’s partly due to the moisture laden air condensing as the blast wave forms. This density of air can do more damage and it looks vicious as it moves towards you, as can be seen in the video....

In all honesty though, this is a tragic occurrence that could have been prevented if the explosives were stored properly. 

I will say this, 100% this is Not fireworks. 

DiscoStu

Taken from The Guardian

"Ammonium nitrate does not burn. However, it will support and increase the rate of combustion in the presence of flammable or combustible materials even in the absence of oxygen.

When heated it will melt, decompose and release toxic gases including nitrogen oxides (NOx) and ammonia gas (NH3). When heated excessively (e.g. as in a fire) it can cause an explosion in an enclosed space and closed containers or vessels may rupture violently."

strtdv

Ammonium nitrate is regulated in the UK and becomes impact sensitive if not stored properly. A warehouse at a factory making it in France blew up in 2001, girders were found 3km away

Jalapeno

Absolutely shocking - looked like a nuclear explosion !

richardhomer

Grim, judging by the videos - can’t believe the death toll won’t be much higher over the coming days.

DiscoStu

In car footage. The speed of that shockwave...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1290769713539305474

robgilmo

2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, for that to be turned into an explosive it needs to be fuelled, it literally needs to be mixed with fuel, and just the right amount of fuel or nothing will happen, then you need a detonator, the detonator has to be able to produce a detonation wave through the fuelled nitrate at 2-3 MPS, also, if this was household fertiliser it would be mixed with ammonium sulfate or urea which would not allow detonation to occur, 
The explosion in Germany in the 1920's needed dynamite as a detonator!

They are now saying that has been stored there since 2013, thats highly unlikely! ''where is my shipment of ammonium nitrate''?  ''dont know sir, we seem to have lost it'' ''what, 2750 tonnes of it''? Not like its going to be inconspicuous now is it?

That was no accident.