What an awful thing to happen, affecting innocent people just going about their daily lives. I’m not jumping to any conclusions or blaming anyone/anything but that explosion was probably the biggest I have ever seen in film except for big nuclear explosions. I remember well the IRA 1000lb bombs in London. I live about 2 miles from Staples Corner and my windows cracked from that 1000lb device, this must be many thousands of time stronger, fireworks my arse!! I await the official explanation but I guess there are not many things that can explode with that force, and there must have been tens of tons of it. I am no chemist etc, but this will take a lot of explaining. I pray for the dead and wounded, we will never know how many dead as there is a big zone obliterated.
Strange that the big second explosion seems to be one massive bang and not a series of smaller explosions. Even if large amounts of ammonium nitrate are stored in the same area for it all to go up at the exact same time seems unbelievable to me.
just watching this now... fuc.en horrible.. those poor people cant catch a brea. at all... the country was in bits before this...
I am sure that there are some experts who will have a rough idea here, but I say to you check out say a 10,000 lb bomb exploding in Baghdad Gulf war then compare it to this. Absolutely no comparison, this must be hundreds if not Thousands of times more powerful .
I saw a film not so long ago of a plant in California or Nebraska that blew up. They were making rocket fuel. Very similar; fire followed by the mother or all explosions.
its very hard to imagine how people just exist in those places ! i,m in my horrors because iv just come home from a 10 day jolly in lanzarote big cranky head on me all day ! how do they just keep going and people say they have no choice but does that make it easier ? my heart really goes out to them !!
I've probably watched every single documentary on You Tube about nuclear weapons, and while it is difficult to compare as most tests were carried out either in the desert or underground so there weren't many structures nearby to give scale, the second Beirut blast looked comparable to some of the tactical nukes of the order of a few kilotons but not quite the size of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs which were respectively, approx 17 and 20 kt. It must have been absolutely terrifying to those living nearby as its a pretty volatile part of the world - only last month Israel may or may not have attacked a nuclear enrichment plant in Iran - and it looked apocalyptic from some angles, especially the one filmed from a boat out at sea.
Here we might be getting an idea.... not sure as so early and we will probably never get near the truth , but a BBC report says.. . Officials are blaming highly explosive materials stored in a warehouse for six years. President Michel Aoun tweeted it was "unacceptable" that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored unsafely. An investigation is under way to find the exact trigger for the explosion. 2750 tonnes of explosive substance FFS. Apart from a nuclear device I would say this is a bigger explosion than any military ordnance commonly in use by a mile.