The # Of Dead In Beirut Must Be In The 4 Figures

[sfstaxprep]

Not sure how many were in that area near the port, but it looks like Puerto Rico did after the Category 5 Hurricane. Just destruction everywhere.

[Squinch]

1. Do we know what caused the explosion?

[sfstaxprep]

2. Nope

Some started to suspect Israel, but Hezbollah disputed that.

Obviously there was some sort of weapons or explosives being stored there.

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. Not necessarily

Industrial cause is my guess. Remember that huge explosion in Shang Hai or wherever it was about a year or two ago?

Industrial accident.

I’ll wager $20 that’s what it was. No terrorism or nefariousness involved

[cayugafalls]

13. According to Arab News it was in an area that housed highly explosive materials.

Nothing more descriptive than that, though. You can see in the videos that there are mini explosions taking place right before the massive explosion, kind of like sparklers in the smoke.

Lebanon's internal security chief Abbas Ibrahim said the explosions took place in a section of the port housing highly-explosive materials.

Link to article

[Celerity]

14. Ammonium nitrate in storage facility at site of Port of Beirut explosion: Minister

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/05/Ammonium-nitrate-in-storage-facility-at-site-of-Port-of-Beirut-explosion-Minister


might be the cause

[Squinch]

21. Thank you. Please, oh please, this was human error and not an attack.

[sfstaxprep]

24. Yes, Like The 155K+ Dead In The U.S. - Human Error & Not An Attack

Because it feels much better knowing it can be blamed on complete stupidity and carelessness.

[Squinch]

25. Are you being sarcastic? Wouldn't you prefer the explosion was not an attack?

[mikeysnot]

4. Fireworks factory?

That was what I heard...

[JHB]

15. Based on some of the videos, that's what I was thinking...

After the first explosion and before the big one, from some angles you can see a lot of small secondary bursts, like fireworks going off. And the cloud from the big one had that weird reddish color.

Although there are probably other explanations for those if it was an industrial site (for some other purpose) or munitions storage. It just reminded me of other fireworks-factory fire footage I've seen.

[RockRaven]

5. Nitrate fertilizer which had been stored in a port warehouse after being seized from a ship

many, many months ago. At least that's the official word thus far about the big explosion. The other fire/explosions proceeding the big one, I haven't heard an official story about yet. But it might be out there already.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Sounds Like A Lack Of Precaution

Ammonium nitrate, I bulk, is never supposed to be stored within 500 yards of any possible source of shock.
Unless the minor explosion was a terror bomb, they had detonantable storage to close to that he another.
If this was an industrial accident, I was an epic F' up.

[Disaffected]

12. Even an intense fire in the warehouse can set it off:

Similar to what happened to the ship in Texas years ago.

Good grief, this has happened often enough that you would think folks would be more aware of the danger.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Texas City, 1947

They decided that a carelessly tossed cigarette started a fire on that ship. I watched a documentary about that. It was really good. They actually think the decomposition hydrogen is what exploded, then everything else went off. Including a ship full of it in the port.
People in Galveston, 10 miles away, were knocked down and thousands of windows broke.
The for has to be very hot for detonation to occur. But, if one part of it gets to decomposition temperature, the volume of nitrogen & hydrogen gets released at supersonic velocity.
That the shock wave that set off everything else.
It takes a lot of energy to make it detonate, but when it does, look out.
Now get this:
This is such a common industrial event, there's a Wikipedia page dedicated to them

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_nitrate_disasters

[Stallion]

9. Sounds Like a Mix Between Timothy McVeigh and 1947 Texas City Explosion which Killed about 600

[underpants]

10. Never would have thought that

Makes sense. I just thought it was an attack. That was a massive explosion

[Stallion]

20. Similiar to that 2013 Explosion in West, Texas South of Dallas Felt 60 Miles Away

sent a toxic cloud over the DFW Metroplex

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/17/west-explosion-memorial/

[Mopar151]

7. Biggest non-military explosion on record?

AFIK, It's the shipload of fertilizer that exploded at Texas City, TX, in the late 1940's.

[Brother Buzz]

17. Um, it was a shipload of confiscated fertilizer

[GulfCoast66]

8. Agreed with RockRaven.

Nitrate Fertilizer would be my guess.

Texas City(if memory serves) was destroyed when an entire ship of it exploded in the harbor.

[CentralMass]

11. That is horrific.

[lettucebe]

19. They are reporting it was tons of Sodium Nitrate stored there

that's all I've got

[Disaffected]

22. An ammonium nitrate explosion would explain

the distinct reddish tinge of the smoke (caused by nitrogen dioxide, a breakdown product of ammonium nitrate).

That's gotta be it.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. It Was Yellow For A While

That suggests sulfur or sodium compounds.
As in, maybe they had stored near each other, that shouldn't be near each other.

[pansypoo53219]

26. that massive shockwave can kill.