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Explosion in Beirut

WOAH!!! That looked like a scene from Independence Day. What in the world!!!
 
Looks bad. Most everything nearby looks leveled at ground zero.

I think it was a munitions depot/shipment. Sure doesn’t seem like a normal firework explosion like some have said.
 
Another view from the water -



Map of the area in question. Looks like it was either a ship or those warehouses.

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Here is the one video that seems to show the warehouse closest to the water as the main source.
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Latest update -


Additional view from the south -


Slow motion version of the first video as well - Physics on a massive scale at work here. I feel so horrible for anyone in that initial explosion area.

 
Colleague/friend of my wife is from Beirut. Said "the devastation is unbelievable."

A truly horrible situation over there. Don't even want to speculate on one of the myriad of potential causes being bandied about.
 
What a video.
 
I saw where officials believe it was ammonium nitrate being stored at the port for years...kinda weird you'd store thousands of TONS of explosive material at your capital city port. But...okay.

 
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barcncpt44 said:
What a video.
Click to expand...

That sound before the blast is beyond eerie. Why would someone be allowed to store that much aluminum nitrate in such a central location in a city? Simply murder is what it is.
 
When the news broke my first thought was that it reminded me of Texas City. Another ammonium nitrate explosion at a port (although in that case it was on a ship rather than in storage at the port itself).

Storing that much of a combustible material that way doesn't make much sense, but it is a common shipping cargo.
 
Kory said:
I saw where officials believe it was ammonium nitrate being stored at the port for years...kinda weird you'd store thousands of TONS of explosive material at your capital city port. But...okay.

Click to expand...


Apparently the ammonium nitrate was seized by customs from a ship after the crew abandoned the vessel and disappeared. Afterwards, customs officials couldn't get permission from the Judiciary to destroy/remove the material (multiple requests were made over the years), and subsequently bureaucratic inertia led to nothing being done.

BTW, Texas City is definitely what I thought of once reports filtered out that officials believed the explosion was due to ammonium nitrate. If anyone is unaware of what happened during the Texas City disaster, I strongly urge them to go read about it and view photographs. Eerily similar to Beirut as far as the material itself and the quantity.
 
Here is the view I was waiting for - wow.. just a hole.

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