Giant Explosion In Lebanon

[Henrik Larsson]

Was huge indeed - though the Enschede fireworks explosion years back was much bigger looking (at least I think that’s how I remember it)

Hope things aren’t as bad as they look there. Poor sods.

Being Dutch, I happen to know quite a lot about the Enschede fireworks disaster. Now whether this one in Lebanon is fireworks or something different, I have absolutely no idea.

But what happened there in the Netherlands in 2000 was 100% fireworks, not ammunition or army material, and the fallout was just absolutely insane to a point where people also couldn't believe this was 'just fireworks', because well, a whole part of a city-centre was blown to pieces. Hundreds of relatively well built and strong brick houses had nothing but the frames left, it looked like a genuine warzone and there were years of conspiracy theories regarding the materials that exploded. Also the central and local Dutch government have washed their hands clean of that disaster in a very shady way, innocent people were blamed for starting the original fire, it's just a very very sad situation really.

I would say this explosion in Lebanon seems even bigger though, and the death count sadly seems to be getting much worse than Enschede as well. All I can say is all the best of luck to the people over there struggling right now.

 

[Fully Fledged]

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2750 tons of ammonium nitrate... The explosion in West, Texas was only 30, but fortunately it was largely in the middle of nowhere, not a city.

The feck. I can believe that more than fireworks but the utter disaster. I feel for the people caught in the middle of it.

 

[Sir Matt]

Did that person survive or was it live streamed?

I saw a verified tweet that the person in the second video did not. If that's the case, I can't imagine the first did.

 

[nimic]

I saw a verified tweet that the person in the second video did not. If that's the case, I can't imagine the first did.

Reminds me of this pretty haunting video:

 

[calodo2003]

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2750 tons of ammonium nitrate... The explosion in West, Texas was only 30, but fortunately it was largely in the middle of nowhere, not a city.

That’s over a thousand times bigger than the OKC bomb in 1995. McVeigh’s bomb was a shade under 5000 pounds. Staggering.

 

[Sir Matt]

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[Fully Fledged]

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This year keeps getting worse and worse roll on 2021.

 

[Avatar]

Horrific. BBC Arabic correspondent in Beirut during an interview. Thankfully, I think she'll be fine.

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[Dr. Dwayne]

Still standing, that's impressive.

Those terminals are usually cylinder after cylinder of concrete shoved together and typically filled with stuff. From an engineering perspective I'd imagine a structure like that is pretty blast resistant.

 

[sammsky1]

Anyone know what the different colours are?

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[sammsky1]

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[AaronRedDevil]

Scenes inside the hospital after the explosion and helping the injured. Just warning you guys. It's a bit graphic.

Spoiler

 

[Carolina Red]

2700 TONS. My god.

The Oklahoma City Bombing was just 2.5 tons.

 

[sammsky1]

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[Carolina Red]

Still standing, that's impressive.

Like that 1 building left standing in the Hiroshima pics

 

[nimic]

Like that 1 building left standing in the Hiroshima pics

Some people have put this explosion at about 1kt on the nuclear scale (I have no idea - actually, I see that the Wikipedia article I used to remember the name of the Halifax Explosion already has the Beirut explosion in its list of largest conventional explosions at 1.3kt ), and see how extreme that is. Now consider that Little Boy, the bomb which hit Hiroshima, was 15kt. I think it's easy for us to underestimate even something as significant as a nuclear explosion, because we have so few reference points. We can see videos of explosions and mushroom clouds, but we can't possibly imagine what it's like to be anywhere near it. Hell, never mind a nuclear explosion, take the Halifax Explosion. That was 2.9kt.

Today everything has a phone pointed at it, particularly if there's something going on with it already (like a fire), so we get to experience much more viscerally what actually happens than ever before. Imagine if 9/11 happened today. That wasn't that long ago, and we have almost no footage of the first impact (I think I've seen two or three videos).

Edit: made the edit white-text for the lulz

 

[entropy]

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@MadMike What do you make of all this?

 

[calodo2003]

2700 TONS. My god.

The Oklahoma City Bombing was just 2.5 tons.

OKC was the equivalent of one of those popper things someone throws to the ground to set off.

 

[calodo2003]

Anyone know what the different colours are?

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Apparently reddish smoke is evidence of ignited ammonium...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/04/beirut-explosion-ammonium-nitrate/

 

[Code-CX]

I live in Beirut. Words really can’t describe the disdain I have for our corrupt politicians. I can without a shadow of a doubt say we have some of the most despicable excuses for human beings ruling us, and the shit that happened today is just a summary of what 30 years of corruption and war lords in power leads to. These feckers have known about this issue since 2014. How in the ever living feck did NO ONE do anything about it. You’d expect in any decent country that heads would roll for this, but these feckers will just shift the blame on each other, and should the people revolt, they’ll be crushed or labeled as traitors with foreign agendas.

FFS man, every day is just filled with anxiety and panic in this damn country. Every day you’d think that shit surely can’t get any worse but here we are.

 

[VidaRed]

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I thought the building next to the explosion was gonna be flattened, but it survived, barely. Crazy scenes.

If fireworks caused this much damage then imagine what a nuke would do!

 

[sglowrider]

[/QUOTE]

I live in Beirut. Words really can’t describe the disdain I have for our corrupt politicians. I can without a shadow of a doubt say we have some of the most despicable excuses for human beings ruling us, and the shit that happened today is just a summary of what 30 years of corruption and war lords in power leads to. These feckers have known about this issue since 2014. How in the ever living feck did NO ONE do anything about it. You’d expect in any decent country that heads would roll for this, but these feckers will just shift the blame on each other, and should the people revolt, they’ll be crushed or labeled as traitors with foreign agendas.

FFS man, every day is just filled with anxiety and panic in this damn country. Every day you’d think that shit surely can’t get any worse but here we are.

I feel for you. Hanging in there. At least United is doing better offering some glimmer of happiness.

 

[Carolina Red]

I live in Beirut. Words really can’t describe the disdain I have for our corrupt politicians. I can without a shadow of a doubt say we have some of the most despicable excuses for human beings ruling us, and the shit that happened today is just a summary of what 30 years of corruption and war lords in power leads to. These feckers have known about this issue since 2014. How in the ever living feck did NO ONE do anything about it. You’d expect in any decent country that heads would roll for this, but these feckers will just shift the blame on each other, and should the people revolt, they’ll be crushed or labeled as traitors with foreign agendas.

FFS man, every day is just filled with anxiety and panic in this damn country. Every day you’d think that shit surely can’t get any worse but here we are.

I’m sorry for you and your city. I sincerely hope those who are responsible are held accountable.

 

[Dargonk]

That is one big explosion. It really baffles my mind that something potentially that explosive was left in a warehouse in the middle of a city since 2013

 

[sglowrider]

That is one big explosion. It really baffles my mind that something potentially that explosive was left in a warehouse in the middle of a city since 2013

tbf you leave something laying around for 7 years, it becomes a blind spot. Imagine stuff sitting around your house for that long.

 

[Camilo]

Great explosion! There can't have been many bigger in recent times. Being where it was should keep the death toll low enough, considering it's in a big city.

Plonkers leaving that lying around, but that's humans for you, we are how we are.

 

[Relfy]

I live in Beirut. Words really can’t describe the disdain I have for our corrupt politicians. I can without a shadow of a doubt say we have some of the most despicable excuses for human beings ruling us, and the shit that happened today is just a summary of what 30 years of corruption and war lords in power leads to. These feckers have known about this issue since 2014. How in the ever living feck did NO ONE do anything about it. You’d expect in any decent country that heads would roll for this, but these feckers will just shift the blame on each other, and should the people revolt, they’ll be crushed or labeled as traitors with foreign agendas.

FFS man, every day is just filled with anxiety and panic in this damn country. Every day you’d think that shit surely can’t get any worse but here we are.

God bless you and all in Lebanon at this time, this was the last thing that was needed there. I hope over time the country can recover and remove those currently in power to provide a fairer society there. I had Beirut as one of my top 5 places I wanted to visit, and still hope to do so in the not too distant future. Stay strong.

 

[Mick1]

I live in Beirut. Words really can’t describe the disdain I have for our corrupt politicians. I can without a shadow of a doubt say we have some of the most despicable excuses for human beings ruling us, and the shit that happened today is just a summary of what 30 years of corruption and war lords in power leads to. These feckers have known about this issue since 2014. How in the ever living feck did NO ONE do anything about it. You’d expect in any decent country that heads would roll for this, but these feckers will just shift the blame on each other, and should the people revolt, they’ll be crushed or labeled as traitors with foreign agendas.

FFS man, every day is just filled with anxiety and panic in this damn country. Every day you’d think that shit surely can’t get any worse but here we are.

Today, we recover. Tomorrow, we mourn. The day after, heads need to roll.

 

[Sultan]

Just realised the extent of the explosion reading this thread. I'm shaking!

My condolences to all those affected.

 

[Sultan]

I very much hope the world helps out the country with emergency aid and help the country rebuild.

 

[Ballache]

I feel absolutely drained after this. I live in Stockholm but am from Beirut, the country as a whole has been going through its worst economic crisis in recent history and the situation was absolutely dire. The past few months have been difficult for us so this is just devastating...

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Being Dutch, I happen to know quite a lot about the Enschede fireworks disaster. Now whether this one in Lebanon is fireworks or something different, I have absolutely no idea.

But what happened there in the Netherlands in 2000 was 100% fireworks, not ammunition or army material, and the fallout was just absolutely insane to a point where people also couldn't believe this was 'just fireworks', because well, a whole part of a city-centre was blown to pieces. Hundreds of relatively well built and strong brick houses had nothing but the frames left, it looked like a genuine warzone and there were years of conspiracy theories regarding the materials that exploded. Also the central and local Dutch government have washed their hands clean of that disaster in a very shady way, innocent people were blamed for starting the original fire, it's just a very very sad situation really.

I would say this explosion in Lebanon seems even bigger though, and the death count sadly seems to be getting much worse than Enschede as well. All I can say is all the best of luck to the people over there struggling right now.

It was 2700 tonnes of nitrate, no shit we couldn’t believe it was just fireworks.

 

[RobinLFC]

I very much hope the world helps out the country with emergency aid and help the country rebuild.

Been seeing messages on different social media platforms that it would be better to send government help and/or money to NGOs like the Red Cross rather than the Lebanese government since you wouldn't know where it would end up in that case. Not sure how much of that is true, but given the country's troubles with corruption in the past, it might be tricky to get the aid to the relevant instances, unfortunately.

 

[iammemphis]

Great explosion! There can't have been many bigger in recent times. Being where it was should keep the death toll low enough, considering it's in a big city.

Plonkers leaving that lying around, but that's humans for you, we are how we are.

Plonker isn't the word i would use to be honest.

 

[Penna]

tbf you leave something laying around for 7 years, it becomes a blind spot. Imagine stuff sitting around your house for that long.

If it came in on an abandoned ship, it would have been safer to leave it anchored out at sea on said ship, wouldn't it? Whyever would the authorities bring it into a warehouse and then just leave it there, it's mad.

I read on the Guardian this morning that this chemical become highly-flammable/unstable when contaminated with oil.

 

[Slevs]

If it came in on an abandoned ship, it would have been safer to leave it anchored out at sea on said ship, wouldn't it? Whyever would the authorities bring it into a warehouse and then just leave it there, it's mad.

I read on the Guardian this morning that this chemical become highly-flammable/unstable when contaminated with oil.

To sell it later for a profit. Welcome to corruption.

 

[GuyfromAustria]

Some people have put this explosion at about 1kt on the nuclear scale (I have no idea - actually, I see that the Wikipedia article I used to remember the name of the Halifax Explosion already has the Beirut explosion in its list of largest conventional explosions at 1.3kt ), and see how extreme that is. Now consider that Little Boy, the bomb which hit Hiroshima, was 15kt. I think it's easy for us to underestimate even something as significant as a nuclear explosion, because we have so few reference points. We can see videos of explosions and mushroom clouds, but we can't possibly imagine what it's like to be anywhere near it. Hell, never mind a nuclear explosion, take the Halifax Explosion. That was 2.9kt.

And now consider that this was a rather small bomb, compared to a lot of H-Bomb tests which had a yield of 10-50 megatons.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Did that person survive or was it live streamed?

I can't believe people really need to ask this

just look at the devastation to buildings literally miles away. Do you really think anybody within close proximity had any chance to survive this? look at the force of the explosion ffs!

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

I can't believe people really need to ask this

I think people can’t quite grasp the power of a shockwave. It aint just a strong wind breezing by.

 

[HTG]

I think people can’t quite grasp the power of a shockwave. It aint just a strong wind breezing by.

An old bomb from WWII detonated in my hometown a few years ago. It was about two kilometres away from my home. It was a small bomb. I’ll never forget the shockwave. It was terrifying. Can’t even begin to imagine how that explosion must have felt like.