Lebanon - Imagine you will waked up by an unexpected Explosion...

[Alexander1970]

..and Life has changed....



......Terrible....

The explosions occurred shortly after 6 p.m. local time (5 p.m. CEST) on Tuesday evening.
They could be heard all over the country, even in Nicosia on the island of Cyprus, 240 kilometers away.
Combating the fires caused by the detonations continued into the night.
The salvage work continued.

According to Prime Minister Hassan Diab, around 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate had exploded.
The chemical, which is used to produce fertilizers and also explosives, was stored in a hall in the port after it had been confiscated years ago.
Why the explosion occurred is unclear, but there is a corresponding risk if ammonium nitrate begins to decompose.

 

[Xzi]

2020 strikes again. The footage is absolutely insane, like an atom bomb detonating. My heart goes out to all the victims. Hopefully a relief fund that we can donate to pops up soon.

 

[Chains]

An aerial shot of the location:

 

[notimp]

Prime Minister Hasan Diab said on tuesday that 2750 tons of confiscated ammonium nitrate had caused the explosion. The material would have been held in storage in a warehouse for six years without precautionary measures. There are active rumors, that it could have been the confiscated cargo of a ship that had been traveling from Georgia to Mosambik. On the circumstances why the load had been confiscated differing accounts exist.

Diab promised in a speech to the Nation that the people responsible for the catastrophe would "pay for it", whilest not addressing the initial cause for the explosion.

https://www.dw.com/de/explosion-in-beirut-was-wir-wissen-und-was-nicht/a-54443661 (german)

Video of the explosion in the article.

 

[Taleweaver]

It's a year full of disasters.

 

[Cyan]

I heard on TV news that the heat near 300°C sublimates the amonium nitrate from solid to gaz.
On one of the video, we can see there is already a fire and some small explosions/electricity on site, until the main explosion occurs, probably igniting that gaz effect.


France had to face such explosion twice already.
Brest, in 1947
Toulouse, AZF incident, September 21st 2001 (10 days after the towers!). rare video available (nobody had a smartphone before 2008)

There were also Germany 1921, and USA Texas 2013.

Beyrouth explosion was 9 times stronger than Toulouse's incident.
It's yet to know whether it's an accident, or the fire was deliberate.

 

[Alexander1970]

Before/After Comparison from a Satellite...

 

[Chains]

Apparently this building was made by engineers from Czech republic:

It is destroyed, still if that was not there the whole city behind there would have been in a worse condition.

 

[notimp]

Business Insider did some of the legwork on 'could it have been nuclear - probably not':
https://www.businessinsider.com/bei...pite-mushroom-cloud-no-flash-2020-8?r=DE&IR=T

(Aside from the little inconvenience of no radiation measured. )