Nicker on 4/8/2020 at 22:51
2020 can't end soon enough.
A massive blast in the dock area of Beirut has devastated the city, killed at least 78 people so far, and injured thousands. Also the port's massive grain silos have been damaged and the contents are too badly contaminated to be used.
[video=youtube;93tV6-0Ugwk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93tV6-0Ugwk[/video]
Apparently an accident in a fireworks factory ignited an adjacent explosives storage warehouse. I shit you not. The explosives were being stored so they could later be disposed of """safely""".
I am sure there is more and worse news to come.
Poor Beirut.
SubJeff on 4/8/2020 at 23:07
I don't believe that fireworks factory story. How you going to be having a fireworks factory next to an explosives storage warehouse now? You'd think they'd keep things like this apart.
I'll wait and see what new info comes out over the next few days.
Scary explosion though!
Nicker on 4/8/2020 at 23:34
I know. The fireworks story sounds very dubious but that's what's being floated right now, along with speculation it was a terror attack and/or a tactical nuke, neither of which pass muster, IMHO.
I probably should not have proffered any speculations at all. Sorry about that.
Pyrian on 5/8/2020 at 00:18
Arguably we've got at least one horseman, Pestilence.
...Covid-19 has kinda ruined me for this sort of disaster. 78 dead, injuries in the thousands? ...No biggie, amirite?
Pyrian on 5/8/2020 at 04:26
Really neat collection of videos here:
(
https://imgur.com/gallery/d5SELHs)
There was a pretty big fire before the baboom, so lots of people were filming it. ...Also, I think there's going to be a lot more than 78 deaths recorded in the next week...
PigLick on 5/8/2020 at 05:53
holy fuck
Nicker on 5/8/2020 at 06:23
I fear it might have an outcome like the (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion) Halifax Explosion of 1917.
Many people were watching a burning ship, not aware it carried munitions. When it exploded, a large number were blinded by shattered glass.
demagogue on 5/8/2020 at 06:43
You've probably all read the news on it now, but for the record it wasn't an explosive storage facility. It was a port, and the ammonium nitrate had apparently been confiscated and was being held in a port warehouse to be safely disposed when they could get to it as the OP says.
Actually when I first saw the video, my immediate thought, the only explosion that looked anything like that that I've ever seen before, was a video of an industrial accident exploision that had happened in a town called West, Texas, in 2013, and that was also ammonium nitrate. The other notable time I recall it being used was for the Oklahoma City domestic terrorist bombing in 1995 which gouged out an entire 10-story building from something fit inside a van parked out front. The stuff clearly needs to be regulated incredibly strictly.
I don't know the facts of the case, but it might have been a kind of damned if you do or if you don't situation, since if they hadn't confiscated it then for all we know that kind of explosive power would have just been used for who knows what wicked purpose later killing even more people.
Edit: Although 'when they could get to it' is more like "being stored in a warehouse at the port for six years." Now I'm less sympathetic to the state or port authorities on this, whoever was responsible for that.
lowenz on 5/8/2020 at 07:09
Quote Posted by demagogue
Although 'when they could get to it' is more like "being stored in a warehouse at the port for six years."
Now I'm less sympathetic to the state or port authorities on this, whoever was responsible for that.
As always you speak for myself too!
It's a catastrophe.
SubJeff on 5/8/2020 at 08:15
I'm not buying this 76 dead figure after seeing some of the shots of the aftermath. There appear to be apartment buildings that are all but leveled.
I'll be surprised if less that 500 people have been killed.
I'll also be (pleasantly) surprised if the initial blaming of Israel, now dismissed with other explanations I still don't fully buy, didn't raise its head again.