Anyone seen the explosion footage from Beirut

[Hobnobswantshernameback]

Just jaw dropping
The sheer force
Horrific
When you see the footage for the second time the horror at what you know is coming
Those poor people

We were there about 18 months ago - as a two day stopover on way to Oman ( strategic use of air miles and twofer vouchers by DH) I was a bit wary, because of its history etc but actually felt very safe ( lots of police on patrol, searches on way into malls etc. ).

There have been attempts in recent years to really promote it as a tourist destination - the climate is great, as is the food and everyone was very friendly. We had a private tour guide for a day who was very good at describing the ancient history and the more modern events plus the very convoluted political system.

We’ve just been staring at the footage of the devastation, looking at wreckage of the streets we walked around and sat having coffee and sweet cakes, streets that survived all the years of civil war.

There’s so much extreme speculation batting around social media at the moment. We saw so much unfettered, badly planned development up towards the hills I would not be at all surprised if it was the case that there was storage of a huge amount unstable fertiliser ( one of the suggestions) in that part of the docks.

Jeez.

2750 Tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate.

McVeigh flattened the Oklahoma City Municipal Building with just two tonnes of the stuff, and the massive Tianjin explosion was reckoned to be about 800 tonnes.

The videos are mind-boggling.

Yes we felt it in Cyprus... wasn’t sure at the time what it was.

Poor people, it’s devastating. Friends went there last year for a short break and pre Covid we were thinking of popping across. Very sad.
Sounds like a dreadful accident rather than anything terrorist.

Ammonium nitrate caused the AZF disaster in Toulouse in 2001 too.

The explosion is devastating.

But it's the longer term impacts on an already struggling country.

They already didn't have enough power and constant blank outs. Very high levels of refugees. COVID.

I hope other countries provide aid and support. We need to make sure we support re stabilising this country.

Poor Beirut! - as if they needed this.

We visited many years ago, before it had become a euphemism for urban devastation - when it was still the ‘Paris of the Middle East’.

@MrsAvocet I didn't know that.

I see even Israel is offering help. This is a humanitarian disaster and other countries need to help

Poor Beirut and those poor people. ☹️

Really informative thread, I was unaware of the other disasters. MNers never cease to amaze me.

I’ve got what is possibly a silly question - is ammonium nitrate, in those quantities, likely to do anything to the air/water that could have adverse effects for local people or for the environment? I’m not a scientist, and a quick online search suggests it’s not very toxic, but it’s a huge quantity. Not something I’ve seen covered in the news.

@BlueThursday

I see even Israel is offering help. This is a humanitarian disaster and other countries need to help

Agree 100%. It's also in our best interests because civil unrest starting there could have further worldwide consequences. COVID has already unsettled many places and we can't afford to allow this to settle.

Watching people this morning on TV from there saying holes blast through buildings miles away. And there's no way to get the materials to fix it.

Plus they were already having blackouts up to 20 hours a day.

@AncientRainbowABC there's a number of toxic effects of the combustion products which will be complex given that we have no idea as yet as to what went up with it in the various surrounding warehouses - if you think what can go through a port, the mind boggles; paint, plastics, bulk chemicals of other types, fuel oils...

Ammonium nitrate as a fertiliser is problematic in water courses/ the sea as it can accelerate algal and plant growth to a point where oxygen is effectively removed through eutrophication.

The blast will also have released various toxic nitrogen compound gases (NOx) as previous posters have said, hopefully being coastal onshore/ offshore winds will disperse that pretty quickly but there will be nasty stuff deposited everywhere.

it's like the 'what can go wrong' demonstrations that you get at work trainings.

grain silo combustion
fire in amunition/firewirks warehouse
fertiliser store

add in

• possible bribary (planning inspectors? h&s inspectors?
• a culture where h&s is seen as wasteful
• a culture where smoking is quite casual

it's shocking and I do hope that the injured can be treated well and recover.

I see even Israel is offering help. This is a humanitarian disaster and other countries need to help There were almost immediate offers from quiet a few, including the UK. I know the locally based Rapid Interational have already started ammassing help, a neighbour has just dropped his retired dogs off with us, he'll be deployed ASAP!

[quote userxx]@MrsAvocet I didn't know that.[/quote]
I looked it up this morning to see if I had remembered correctly actually. I remember the smell of fertiliser in the air after the explosion. The 1996 Manchester bomb was estimated to be 1500kg of ammonium nitrate and semtex. Fortunately there had been a warning so the area had been largely evacuated and nobody was killed but the damage to property was significant. I think over a billion pounds worth of damage occurred. And comparatively, that was a tiny amount of explosive. Having seen first hand what that amount of ammonium nitrate can do, I can hardly bear to think about the devastation that the quantity estimated to have been in that warehouse will have caused. It really is horrific, and in a place that has suffered so much already. I hope the international community does what it can to help.

@LiveandLetPie Thanks so much, that’s a far more coherent explanation than I got from a scientist friend who just said it will have all burnt itself out so no impact in terms of chemical fallout. You’re so right about the unknowns in the port, too. ☹️