Re: Monster explosion in Beirut

[ASMO]

That's gonna ruin someone's day

[Slick]

Bloody hell, what could that have been. Not just a bomb?

[JM2K6]

[sorCrer]

Bloody hell, what could that have been. Not just a bomb?

Fireworks storage facility.

[Raggs]

Apparently a fireworks depot?



Seems to show lots of little explosions (like fireworks), before the big one.

[Line6 HXFX]

Ooooo jesus fuck.

[JM2K6]

It seems unlikely to be fireworks - you wouldn't expect an explosion that massive, and the stuff that's sparking off doesn't look like fireworks, more like munitions. But hey, who knows, we'll find out soon enough I suppose.

[Ali Cadoo]

Terrible. Could it have been a gas supply - or similar - running near the fireworks factory?

[Raggs]

It seems unlikely to be fireworks - you wouldn't expect an explosion that massive, and the stuff that's sparking off doesn't look like fireworks, more like munitions. But hey, who knows, we'll find out soon enough I suppose.

Once the temp gets high enough, it'll all just go boom at once, and if they store raw materials as well as completed fireworks, then even more possible.

[JM2K6]

I'm obviously just spitballing, it's just that the other fireworks factory / warehouse explosions I've seen have had more obvious "fireworks going off" trails and smaller explosions. Either way... feeling a bit guilty about speculating when it looks like there's going to be a serious death toll :(

[Raggs]

Guardian reporting that the Lebanese health minister said there was a ship carrying fireworks in the dock.

It's odd that there's clearly a fire going on at first, which seems to trigger the large explosion.

And because the Guardian are completely unbiased and reasonable reporters, they've of course contacted Israeli military for comment (who didn't comment).

(Actually, I don't mind Guardian reporting for a lot of things, but biases are biases).

[Biffer]

Some video on the bbc website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-53656220

Blimey. looks like a hell of a big bang. Would be hard to believe it was fireworks.

[Jock42]

That is fucking brutal.

Any word on casualties?

[Biffer]

Holy fuck.

[Un Pilier]

Hell’s teeth

[SaintK]

Holy shit!!!

[Raggs]

[Wyndham Upalot]

Absolutely horrific. If the port was operating at normal staffing levels, hundreds will have been killed. Just hope that as it was late afternoon/early evening, most people had returned home.

[Lobby]

Guardian reporting that the Lebanese health minister said there was a ship carrying fireworks in the dock.

It's odd that there's clearly a fire going on at first, which seems to trigger the large explosion.

And because the Guardian are completely unbiased and reasonable reporters, they've of course contacted Israeli military for commeint (who didn't comment).

(Actually, I don't mind Guardian reporting for a lot of things, but biases are biases).

Indeed, the Corbynistas have been falling over each other in the rush to try and blame the Israelis (Tweet subsequently deleted):



The BBC are also reporting that there could be a link to a trial of Hezbollah terrorists

Tensions are also high ahead of the verdict in a trial over the killing of ex-PM Rafik Hariri in 2005. A UN tribunal is due to issue its verdict in the trial of four suspects in the murder by car bomb of Hariri on Friday.

Regardless of the cause, I fear the number of casualties is likely to be huge.

[Biffer]

Some more video of the p ort after wards

[Lobby]

The explosion has caused severe damage across Beirut. This is the airport, more than 6 miles from the port

[robmatic]

I'm obviously just spitballing, it's just that the other fireworks factory / warehouse explosions I've seen have had more obvious "fireworks going off" trails and smaller explosions. Either way... feeling a bit guilty about speculating when it looks like there's going to be a serious death toll :(

Same here, we've had a few fireworks factory explosions in Turkey recently and yes, lots more obvious rockets and much smaller when they do have a big boom. Also that big red plume of smoke isn't from fireworks.

[robmatic]

Obviously the casualties are the primary concern, but the Lebanese economy was already fooked and this won't help.

[Raggs]

Reports now that it was actually a storage facility containing confiscated high explosives.

EDIT - Sounds more and more like it was just a weapons storage facility.

[fishfoodie]

Reports now that it was actually a storage facility containing confiscated high explosives.

EDIT - Sounds more and more like it was just a weapons storage facility.

Definately more plausible. The secondary explosion was too fast for something like gas, or fireworks; the shock wave was moving very fast.

I wondered if they had a large quantity of Fertilizer at the docks, as it looked like the explosion they had film of, in West Texas, at a Fertilizer plant, & it was only something like 20 tonnes that devastated the town. It was a similar situation where there was a small fire, that just wasn't tackled before the fertilizer cooked off

[Biffer]

Reports now that it was actually a storage facility containing confiscated high explosives.

EDIT - Sounds more and more like it was just a weapons storage facility.

Definately more plausible. The secondary explosion was too fast for something like gas, or fireworks; the shock wave was moving very fast.

I wondered if they had a large quantity of Fertilizer at the docks, as it looked like the explosion they had film of, in West Texas, at a Fertilizer plant, & it was only something like 20 tonnes that devastated the town. It was a similar situation where there was a small fire, that just wasn't tackled before the fertilizer cooked off

That's what I was thinking, partly because of the red colour.

[BnM]

Fuck

[Sandstorm]

Bottle rocket most likely. Maybe a Black Cat.

[Margin__Walker]

Been hearing about this today without paying a lot of attention. First time I've actually seen footage though.

Jesus, that's a huge explosion. Terrifying

[fishfoodie]

Been hearing about this today without paying a lot of attention. First time I've actually seen footage though.

Jesus, that's a huge explosion. Terrifying

Probably lucky to have it happen at a port; 50% of the blast wave is going out to sea; the footage on the news items shows all the people having blast injuries from flying glass, so there probably isn't an unbroken pane of glass in Beirut tonight.

Piling all these injuries on top of Covid is going to be horrible

[Hal Jordan]

Christ on a bike.

Twitter has it that there may have been a grain silo nearby and they seriously go bang under the right (wrong) conditions.

Someone else has likened it to the 1917 Halifax explosion when a ship laden with high explosives collided with another ship and blew nigh on 2,000 people to Kingdom Come.

[fishfoodie]

Christ on a bike.

Twitter has it that there may have been a grain silo nearby and they seriously go bang under the right (wrong) conditions.

Someone else has likened it to the 1917 Halifax explosion when a ship laden with high explosives collided with another ship and blew nigh on 2,000 people to Kingdom Come.

Google Earth is useful, & with the last video above, you can see the explosion happened in one of the warehouses beside the line of silos, & in the video you can see the silo building bulge out, as the shock wave expanded out.

There are probably chunks of concrete from those silos all along the shoreline

[Biffer]

Christ on a bike.

Twitter has it that there may have been a grain silo nearby and they seriously go bang under the right (wrong) conditions.

Someone else has likened it to the 1917 Halifax explosion when a ship laden with high explosives collided with another ship and blew nigh on 2,000 people to Kingdom Come.

Google Earth is useful, & with the last video above, you can see the explosion happened in one of the warehouses beside the line of silos, & in the video you can see the silo building bulge out, as the shock wave expanded out.

There are probably chunks of concrete from those silos all along the shoreline

I saw photos of damage at Beirut Airport. That's 6 miles away.

[Nols]

Reports now that it was actually a storage facility containing confiscated high explosives.

EDIT - Sounds more and more like it was just a weapons storage facility.

I was thinking a Hezbollah managed fireworks facility...

[Un Pilier]

Why would anybody store anything that devastating in a populous area? No doubt there’s an answer - I just can’t imagine what it is.

[Sandstorm]

BBC says it was an old ammonium nitrate store, not maintained in over 6 years.

[fishfoodie]

BBC says it was an old ammonium nitrate store, not maintained in over 6 years.

That makes sense. They sat all that explosive material, right there on the dockside.

[Enzedder]

A composite of the explosions from different viewpoints

[fishfoodie]

A composite of the explosions from different viewpoints

Cheers !

That's really interesting. When you merge the different videos together, you can see the three different events; the original fire/explosion, the next, very brief, red cloud from a 2nd explosion; & then the 3rd & most destructive blast.

[fishfoodie]

BBC says it was an old ammonium nitrate store, not maintained in over 6 years.

2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored unsafely.