https://twitter.com/BillNeelyN...-filmed-over-lebanon

Prime Minister has come out saying there was ammonium nitrate that had been sitting in a dock warehouse for 6-years.

Yup, 2400 tons of it................

Well, that's just bloody damn brilliant.

I would first not discount ineptitude. Next, I would look to who has the most to gain from a further weakened Lebanon.

Edit: I was in a meeting and sat on posting this for about 15 minutes, so it appears that the above statement already settled the question

Texas City 1947 had a similar explosion.

A giant explosion occurs during the loading of fertilizer onto the freighter Grandcamp at a pier in Texas City, Texas, on April 16, 1947. Nearly 600 people lost their lives and thousands were injured when the ship was literally blown to bits.

LINK: https://www.history.com/this-d...n-kills-581-in-texas

Ammonium nitrate was used as an explosive by the U.S. Army in World War II and, after the war ended, production of the chemical continued as its use as a fertilizer became accepted. However, the precautions used in its transport became far more lax in the post-war years.

On April 16, the Grandcamp was being loaded with ammonium nitrate as well as tobacco and government-owned ammunition. Cigarette smoking, although officially banned, was a common practice by longshoremen on the docks. Just two days prior to the explosion, a cigarette had caused a fire on the docks. On the morning of April 16, smoke was spotted deep within one of the Grandcamp‘s holds.

Some water and an extinguisher were used to fight the fire, but hoses were not employed for fear of ruining the cargo; there were already 2,300 tons loaded on the ship. While the ammunition was removed from the ship, the crew attempted to restrict oxygen to the hold in hopes of putting out the fire. Apparently they did not realize that because of ammonium nitrate’s chemical composition, it does not require oxygen in order to burn.

By 9 a.m., flames had erupted from the hold and within minutes it exploded. The blast was heard 150 miles away and was so powerful that the ship’s 1.5- ton anchor was found two miles away. The force of the explosion lifted another ship right out of the water. People working at the docks were killed instantly.

Pieces of flaming debris damaged the oil refineries in the area. A nearby Monsanto chemical storage facility also exploded, killing 234 of the 574 workers there. Nearly all of the survivors were seriously injured. A residential area of 500 homes was also leveled by the blast. Another ship, the High Flyer, which was carrying similar cargo, was pushed completely across the harbor. The crew fled when it came to rest, failing to notice that a fire had started and the next day their ship also exploded. Two people died.

In all, 581 people died and 3,500 were injured. The explosion caused $100 million in damages. A long-disputed court case over the cause of the blast was resolved when Congress granted compensation to 1,394 victims. They received a total of $17 million in 1955. The port was rebuilt to handle oil products only.

Those poor bastards.

Ex- EOD friend replied with this when I asked him

“Guessing but A no crater on site, B pattern is fairly even at least from the views I could get, C the cloud has a very distinct reddish tinges. All told and given smaller explosion followed by larger one? torpex or some other moisture stabilized explosive based in the Amatol family. given the sheer amount of multiple country stuff that flows through Beirut? Torpex in this case may be older com block, Yugoslav, Chinese or Brit manufacture so the exact composition is hard to say and may have been a combination but I think without further evidence that is close.”

In 1979 I'd been working in Houston tv news for a few months and the Burmah Agate caught fire in the Houston Ship Channel. We set up basically next to it, no one knew what the cargo was for most of that very long day. I got my education in the 1947 Texas City disaster, it's all anyone talked about. I was a little different person after that.

Looks like the fire started at the fireworks plant; you can see them going off in the fire and smoke before the large explosion. That spread to the area storing the ammonium nitrate.

That was horrible. Praying for the people of Beirut.

From the Twitter feed:

LBCI: Preliminary information from security sources "speak of 2700 tons of seized ammonium in Beirut Port exploded in course of welding small opening to prevent theft." twitter.com/LBCI_NEWS/stat…

Wow.

There have been things like grain plants and such that gone off like that. Anyone within probably 1/2 mile+ probably had a very very bad day.

Boss

quote:

Originally posted by StarTraveler:
That was horrible. Praying for the people of Beirut.

From the Twitter feed:

LBCI: Preliminary information from security sources "speak of 2700 tons of seized ammonium in Beirut Port exploded in course of welding small opening to prevent theft." twitter.com/LBCI_NEWS/stat…

Reckon that's one way of preventing theft.

screen capture just as the big explosion occurred

Wow....devastating.

Using NUKEMAP as a model for a 2.750 kt non-atomic surface blast (its an estimate), the damage looks like this:



Starting from the second inner most ring:

Air blast radius (200 psi): 110 m (0.04 km²)
200 psi is approximately the pressure felt inside of a steam boiler on a locomotive. Extreme damage to all civilian structures, some damage to even "hardened" structures.

Fireball radius: 120 m (0.04 km²)
Maximum size of the fireball; anything inside the fireball is effectively vaporized. [NOTE: This is the very thin ring near the epicenter]

Heavy blast damage radius (20 psi): 300 m (0.29 km²)
At 20 psi overpressure, heavily built concrete buildings are severely damaged or demolished; fatalities approach 100%.

Moderate blast damage radius (5 psi): 0.64 km (1.29 km²)
At 5 psi overpressure, most residential buildings collapse, injuries are universal, fatalities are widespread.

Thermal radiation radius (3rd degree burns): 0.79 km (1.97 km²)
Third degree burns extend throughout the layers of skin, and are often painless because they destroy the pain nerves. They can cause severe scarring or disablement, and can require amputation.

Thermal radiation radius (2nd degree burns (50%)): 1.04 km (3.38 km²)
Second degree burns are deeper burns to several layers of the skin. They are very painful and require several weeks to heal. Extreme second degree burns can produce scarring or require grafting.

Thermal radiation radius (1st degree burns (50%)): 1.45 km (6.61 km²)
First degree burns are superficial burns to the outer layers of the skin. They are painful but heal in 5-10 days. They are more or less the same thing as a sunburn.

Light blast damage radius (1 psi): 1.65 km (8.54 km²)
At a around 1 psi overpressure, glass windows can be expected to break.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
https://twitter.com/BillNeelyN...-filmed-over-lebanon

Prime Minister has come out saying there was ammonium nitrate that had been sitting in a dock warehouse for 6-years.

Not likely. AN absorbs water basically making it basically inert...6 yrs at a port... unless it was perfectly encapsulated... not believing it

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

quote:

Originally posted by snwghst:

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
https://twitter.com/BillNeelyN...-filmed-over-lebanon

Prime Minister has come out saying there was ammonium nitrate that had been sitting in a dock warehouse for 6-years.

Not likely. AN absorbs water basically making it basically inert...6 yrs at a port... unless it was perfectly encapsulated... not believing it

That is not correct. The AN will likely have absorbed lots of moisture UNLESS it was coated (as are many fertilizer grades) or if it was packaged in sealed containers such as drums.

Even if the AN had been in a gigantic pile that was all hardened and caked from moisture absorption, a fire on the facility would quickly begin to dry it out, followed by rapid thermal decomposition and runaway to detonation.

While NUKEMAP is a neat tool, I think 2.75kT is a bit high for an estimate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...er_Company_explosion

I understand that this Ammonium Nitrate was just in piles inside sheds. It still went BOOM.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:

While NUKEMAP is a neat tool, I think 2.75kT is a bit high for an estimate.

Why? That is a number given by a Lebanese official at a press conference, though he said 2,750 tons.

2,750 tons is 2.75 kilotons [2,750 tons * 1 kt/1000 tons = 2.75 kt]

If any one is likely to know the scope of the blast, it is a leb.gov official.

The blast pressure from NUKEMAP is close to what is seen on the ground.

So until new info is provided by the leb.gov, I’m sticking with what the leb.gov says.