Massive blast rips through Beirut, killing 50 and injuring thousands

[Enoon]

5 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

when we were young they used to use this as a weed killer ,we used to mix it with sugar ,put it into a metal tube and close both ends in a vice ,then in a hole we had made would put jetex fuse ,light it and throw them out in the country they went off like a grenade ,can you imagine doing that these days

ps i wont go into things we blew up with them ,and how one friend got hit by a fragment .????

 

You're talking about Sodium Chlorate.

 

 

[bert bloggs]

28 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

You're talking about Sodium Chlorate.

 

 

oh you were a naughty boy as well ,eh?

[nauseus]

59 minutes ago, Grumpy John said:

When I was in the army I saw a display of artillery firing live rounds and an F-111 dropping bombs which all combined was not even a spot on that Beirut explosion.  

 

But I don't get how it went bang almost like a nuclear explosion.  Some friend's and I ran a number of experiments with ammonium nitrate fertiliser, a long time ago, and we never got an explosion of any kind like this one....in fact none!  You need a super good detonator to initiate an explosion.  There must have been diesel fuel or avturb in there as well.

Anything might be possible on a site like this. We can see a big fire and small detonations within it. There is almost certainly going to be at least some fuel storage in any port complex. The heat source was evidently intense, easily enough trigger ignition and explosion of ammonium nitrate. 2,750 tons of this stuff still has about the same effect as at least 1,000 tons of TNT (I did not factor in any possible fuel component). 

[tomazbodner]

There are some people who tried to calculate the force of explosion based on how it ripped through the buildings and what pressure that would take, and they came up with 240 tons of TNT on the low end and 3,300 tons of TNT comparable explosion at the high end. As a comparison: Hiroshima nuclear bomb was comparable to 13-18,000 tons of TNT.

 

This is how the epicenter of the blast looks like (yes, that hole filled by the sea now):

 

And from the other side... this photo looks like something out of a war or disaster movie...

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by tomazbodner
added photo

[tomazbodner]

Official cause of blast is not known but Michael Aoun, Lebanese President said that 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate was stored in the warehouse without safety precautions after it was moved there from a container ship in 2013. In the meantime number of dead has surpassed 100, and number of wounded is now confirmed to be over 4000.

 

Among wounded are crew of a ship that was docked at that time, and suffered catastrophic damage which sank it.

 

[Damrongsak]

List of ammonium nitrate disasters:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_nitrate_disasters

 

 

[Rimmer]

Some speculative troll posts and replies have been removed

[IAMHERE]

Right now, today, sooner if possible; please form a committee to research if  ammonia nitrate has been stored for a long time in Thailand somewhere. 

 

[canuckamuck]

5 hours ago, Saint Nick said:

The cameras where pointed at the big fire and the pillar of smoke rising from it, BEFORE the explosion!

And then it happened!

Nothing "suss" about that!

At all!

 

To be fair, it was a big fire first, with lots of fireworks going off. People are going to film stuff like that. They didn't know there was going to be a big explosion.

[CorpusChristie]

5 hours ago, Saint Nick said:

The cameras where pointed at the big fire and the pillar of smoke rising from it, BEFORE the explosion!

And then it happened!

Nothing "suss" about that!

At all!

 

It was a large fire with fireworks going off , its quite normal for people to film such things 

[stevenl]

13 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

To be fair, it was a big fire first, with lots of fireworks going off. People are going to film stuff like that. They didn't know there was going to be a big explosion.

 

1 minute ago, CorpusChristie said:

It was a large fire with fireworks going off , its quite normal for people to film such things 

Which is exactly what Nick was saying.

[CorpusChristie]

10 minutes ago, stevenl said:

 

Which is exactly what Nick was saying.

I cant work out his sarcasm/Irony .

[7by7]

39 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

I cant work out his sarcasm/Irony .

 No sarcasm, no irony. He was replying to this piece of speculative, conspiracy theory nonsense:

 

6 hours ago, tifino said:

certainly a bit suss; in just haw many myriad of cameras were pointing at the zone

- to make sure of it being captured from all angles  

 

 A scaled down simulation of an urban nuclear test

 

[Meat Pie 47]

17 hours ago, pegman said:

Jeez, the explosion was heard over 100 miles away. You have to think the death toll will be very high.  As if this nation has not had more than it's share of hard times. 

yes the dead toll is a few hundred now

[bendejo]

8 hours ago, Saint Nick said:

Yes...that includes you, Donald Trump!

That's really what he's about: making the story about himself.  Even Al Jazeera carried his comment. 

There is a joke I first heard in the 1990s:

What is the most dangerous place in the world?

The space between DT and a camera.

 

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by bendejo

[katana]

Nanny got a payrise;

 

[The Barmbeker]

12 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

To be fair, it was a big fire first, with lots of fireworks going off. People are going to film stuff like that. They didn't know there was going to be a big explosion.

 

12 hours ago, CorpusChristie said:

It was a large fire with fireworks going off , its quite normal for people to film such things 

Why are you telling me and not the guy who found that "suss"?