No way this was military. Too big. What would they be bombing? Whatever the target did not need all of that when there are so many precision weapons in use. Terror? hmm. maybe terrorist to Set Off what was there... But again, whatever they wanted to accomplish (Terror and Fear) could have been done using much fewer resources and with less chance of getting caught before. BUT There have been many many suspicious fires and explosions in Iran recently. Some at Nuclear facilities and some at ports... I have not seen any official blame laid yet. But we all know who the top few might be. On a Possibly similar note... There was a fire on a US Navy ship here recently... Tit for Tat? Rex
Terrible that these "mistakes" happen. "Stored unsafely" WTF... Makes my mind wander to our own last major disaster - Grenfel fire. Obviously on a different scale yet its the same thing at the heart. Incompetants causing massive loss of life, probably due to financial corner cutting.
Most of the worst of these are usually due to cost cutting, or just complacency. Many times these things are built where nobody is around. But then a few more businesses locate nearby leading to more jobs in that location, then people move in. Later when everyone forgets that when they first wanted a future explosion factory around here that they all fought against it... So 2 decades later people are all around. Many would never even know they were close to a place like that. The rest are told it must be safe... It hasnt blown up for twenty years....
Wow, the footage is amazing. This could well be quite a bit bigger than when Buncefield blew up back in 2005. I was living over 30 miles away at the time on the other side of London and it woke me up(!) just after 6am on that Sunday. Incredibly, no-one was killed in that event but due to proximity this time there'll be huge casualties.
A fire started in a fireworks warehouse at the Port, the heat generated started poorly stored Ammonia Nitrate in an adjacent warehouse to gas off, when the gas ignited it caused more heat and dust thereby creating a vapour cloud gas explosion, see what happens if you squirt an aerosol can at a small flame or throw a handful of flour on an open flame.
Confiscated ammonium nitrate I heard. Is that the fertiliser the IRA liked dotting about in big milk urns?? Anyhow, must have been a shit load. Blimey.
Apparently it was 7250 Tonnes, if you Google "BLEVE" it will give you an idea, although a bleve is a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion, but similar results.
Reports saying at least 100 dead. The second explosion, with the cloud, extremely sad but unbelievable footage.
I was there around 3 and 1/2 years ago and this city is a "survivor". They surely have their challenges but they also look for the best and not the worst in everything. I just checked with 2 of my friends down there and thankfully they are safe, but this was a massive shock, literally, for them.
Glad to hear this positive news....a great city... the Paris of the East?...many Lebanese in N London of course.. love the Narghile bars... love the people...
Woke me up too - I was living in Norfolk at the time and all the windows rattled, I actually thought it was some fekker trying to break in
I am amazed that the concrete silos immediately adjacent to the blast site are still standing. I think that many people in the lee of the silos have reason to be thankful. The silos must have deflected a lot of energy away from the built up area behind.
Those silos are incredibly strong and well reinforced .....they are usually wire-wound and pre-stressed constructed in slip-form method all way up so really integral. I want to donate to the recovery of this city.....anyone aware of any charity other than Lebanese Red Cross on the ground and assisting as we speak?
If you were cleared to know about such a device, if it exists, you wouldn't be discussing it in the open
Some of the videos are showing something like fireworks going off, then the massive explosion. Maybe electrical cables, I've no idea. That's a big one, shame so many died, was the area no evacuated or maybe no one knew it was going to explode the way it did.
Ammonium Nitrate explosions have killed hundreds before. The link below and the attached video shows one in China in 2015 but there have been others prior to the advent of mobile phones that have not been filmed. Its not stuff to leave lying around even in small quantities - but nearly 3000 tons ?? No wonder it left a crater the size of a city block https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-33844084
