What the videos of the Beirut blast tell us
about the explosion
Washington Post,
by
Alex Horton
Original Article
Posted By: earlybird,
8/5/2020 10:54:47 AM
The massive explosions in a Beirut port on Tuesday provoked fear, then speculation after an eerie, white cloud enveloped the lenses of bystander videos, with many suggesting online that it looked something like a nuclear blast.
But the building consensus among arms experts and Lebanese officials is that the explosion, which killed at least 100 people and injured thousands more, may have been ignited by burning chemicals stored at a warehouse.(Snip)A few things can be concluded from the videos, including some filmed before the bigger of the blasts, which Lewis said may have begun when munitions in storage caught fire.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
hershey 8/5/2020 11:02:54 AM (No. 500683)
Do stupid things, get stupid rewards...
4 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
rosefenn 8/5/2020 11:09:49 AM (No. 500696)
Welp, sounds to me like what happened at the beginning of Pat Frank's 1959 novel "Alas, Babylon!" And we all know how THAT ended!
5 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
bamboozle 8/5/2020 11:27:50 AM (No. 500714)
Wonder if there's a connection to the mysterious explosions happening recently in Iran?
4 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
MindMadeUp 8/5/2020 11:50:42 AM (No. 500741)
The question for the curious is why the massive amount of ammonium nitrate was abandoned by its owners simply because the ship carrying it broke down. You would think they would just sell it out of the warehouse.
11 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Italiano 8/5/2020 11:54:53 AM (No. 500746)
Wow, #2, I read that book in high school.
Except it was Latakia, Syria, IIRC, from a U.S. missile that went wild.
3 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Ruhn 8/5/2020 12:12:50 PM (No. 500771)
Sounds similar to the 1947 Texas City disaster. 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate detonated onboard a docked ship. The explosion started a chain reaction of fires and other explosions that ultimately killed almost 600 people.
8 people like this.
My high school chemistry teacher taught me that nitrates are cheaper than day-rates!
14 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
jenkinshill 8/5/2020 12:47:41 PM (No. 500829)
FTA: "A rising cloud of white smoke featured crackling and bright pops consistent with when small munitions — rockets, for instance — begin cooking off, he said."
So it seems that a fire (of unknown cause) set off some explosives (officials are saying "fireworks," but a Hezbollah munitions cache is more likely), which then set off the ammonium nitrate stored nearby.
11 people like this.
#3 Think Trump and Israel. And maybe the storms in China too. HAARP
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 8/5/2020 12:59:58 PM (No. 500841)
Was this a terrorist act or not? Nobody owned the ammonium nitrate? It had an owner. They just don't want it tied to them. Black market sales? Somebody's explosive stockpile just went boom. Was it accidental or deliberate?
9 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
stablemoney 8/5/2020 1:29:22 PM (No. 500872)
I watched a video of the building before the explosion, then the explosion, which was a tremendous outward force from inside the building. The building and everything around was reduced to rubble. My speculation: I think it probably was ammonia nitrate in storage, because a terrorist could have accomplished their goal with only a small proportion of the force in that explosion.
2 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 8/5/2020 1:32:38 PM (No. 500875)
I buy the experts opinion that small munitions were popping thus creating the initial appearance of fireworks blowing up. I agree with their opinion that ammonium nitrate was indeed being stored given the reddish smoke that emerged right after the main explosion. But, I strongly disagree with their opinion that a preceding fire caused the ammonium nitrate to detonate.
I worked around this material during my mining career and it doesn't work this way. As I have opined already, the ammonium nitrate that was in storage there was brought to Beirut for the purpose of making large explosive devices. Fuel oil had to have been already added before the material was impounded there to make it explosive. Detonator and initiator caps and associated blasting cords had to have been placed inside the stockpile. Was the material stored in bags that would identify it as ANFO, Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil? The government should look for remains of these items. Then they will have their answer.
13 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Proud Texan 8/5/2020 3:26:23 PM (No. 500947)
Wow #2 and #5. I read that book my senior year in high school too. Was recommended to me by librarian when I ran out of good books to read. It sure makes a person think about the very serious ramifications that can happen from unintentional actions.
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
earlybird 8/5/2020 3:45:35 PM (No. 500965)
Re #12, the RedState article linked in OP comment tells us how the ammonium nitrate ended up in Beirut. That was not its original destination:
As explained in the “notice” or story — seemingly from a Beirut law firm involved in the matter — the events started in Beirut maritime circles in 2013. Yes, that’s seven years ago, but there are many reasons — most of which involve some form of the word “Boom” in the description — for why this circumstance might have persisted for such a length of time.
As set forth in the document, on September 23, 2013, the merchant vessel (“m/v”) “Rhosus”, flying a Moldovian flag, departed Batumi Port, Georgia Republic, headed for Biera, Mozambique, with a cargo of 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate.
Batumi is a coastal city on the Black Sea, and the Rhosus would have made its way to Mozambique by passing through the Bosporus Straight in Istanbul, Turkey, and into the Mediterranean Sea.
The report states that while in transit the Rhosus experienced technical problems and was forced to divert to the port in Beirut. Upon inspection by Port State Control in Beirut, the vessel was declared unseaworthy and forbidden from departing.
The rest of that article, which includes considerable detail, tells us that efforts to sell the cargo from the warehouse failed. Recommend a read of that article if truly interested.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Norway 8/5/2020 4:01:21 PM (No. 500977)
Aloha Snackbar!
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 8/5/2020 5:16:53 PM (No. 501033)
Thank you much, #14, for clarifying. But, the fact remains that the material had to be stored as ANFO not as just ammonium nitrate in order to exhibit explosive characteristics.
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
bighambone 8/5/2020 5:34:01 PM (No. 501047)
At this point it is safe to say that a whole bunch of smaller explosions, probably consisting of bombs or rockets, set off one great big explosion. Clearly the government there was totally incompetent in allowing that much explosive material to be stored unprotected in their Capitol city.
1 person likes this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Omen55 8/5/2020 5:37:54 PM (No. 501052)
They haven't blame Trump.
How can this be WaPo?
3 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Gallo3 8/5/2020 6:39:36 PM (No. 501131)
If I recall correctly, in the 9147 Texas City disaster, a ship carrying oil drilling pipe was docked next to the ship carrying ammonium nitrate. When the explosion took place, drilling pipe debris was found up to 60 miles distant.
3 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
watashiyo 8/5/2020 9:01:49 PM (No. 501248)
Do these things go off on their own?
0 people like this.
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Comments:
Shipwreckedcrew at RedState does some interesting dot-connecting and finds a ship loaded with 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate was abandoned in Beirut in 2013 because of mechanical problems. Its cargo was moved off the ship and into a warehouse, awaiting another disposition that never happened, and so it stayed there. The rest is here:
https://www.redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2020/08/04/abandoned-shipment-of-ammonium-nitrate-behind-the-explosion-in-beirut-today/