[deanhills]

Watch this: https://youtu.be/F-vGkIKxGAg

You can hear crackles and pops, along with seeing flashes which are characteristic of fireworks. Then skip to the 8:50 mark, and keep watching, in a few seconds you’ll see the first minor explosion, but what you’ll also see is a bunch of sparkles as well, which makes it hella obvious that they’re fireworks! 

Here’s also a video of a guy literally standing next to the warehouse (couldn’t find it on youtube so ive uploaded it to ufile.io): https://ufile.io/2xenj23f

You can clearly see the flashes of light and cracklings sound caused by fireworks. 


“But my understanding is it came from the ammonium nitrate that combusted in parts and caused small fires”

Nope, that’s not possible at all. Ammonium nitrate isn’t combustible by itself at all. You can’t even have small fires caused by it alone. Again, chemistry proves this, so there’s no point in trying to prove this fact otherwise.

The insane amount of misleading information provided by clueless media is very worrying. It’s almost as if they’re rushing to get their articles out there that they’re not too bothered to fact-check. Like wow.

Hmmmm .....OK food for thought .,.. I'm thinking but not completely convinced it was fireworks.  Maybe an alternate theory.  It did get ignited from a neighbouring fire but parts of it only got ignited initially that required the fire engineers to be called in to attend to the fire inside Silo 12.  Like it was not an immediate main event explosion that happened with the ammonium nitrate.  There were small fires inside the silo where the tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored that preceded resulting in smaller explosions before the big one. Those smaller explosions could easily have sounded like fire crackers. I'm open to agreeing that maybe the ammonium nitrate did not combust in themselves - maybe there was something else that caught fire in the Silo first and started a chain reaction?

I also agree with @rudra we probably are never going to get to the truth of what really happened, unless the world demands an external investigation, and even then, maybe like that airplane that got shot down - was it in Ukraine near Russia - MH17? - or with the Kashoggi event in Turkey, we will only hear what the investigators think we need to hear, keeping the real truth away from us and only providing it to corrupt Government leaders who negotiate the truth for public consumption.  It's not only Lebanon leaders who are corrupt - they're just not as sophisticated at being corrupt as the world leaders of the "1st world".  

[tryp4vps]

... if people still don't have an understand how dangerous ammonium nitrate generally is... can't be helped with. It is simple a very reactive chemical subtance. It was stored in a hangar under the wrong conditions and caused a massive explosion that was possibly easily amplified by what else was stored around the area of that hanger and could have been explosive or flamable......

Yes but I think it was more than just a simple problem of improper storage conditions.

No matter it is an ammunation factory or a fireworks factory, it should not be located near a populated area at least.

So in my opinion, the more critical problem should be the factory location.

[Sn1F3rt]

Well, to comment on this in my opinion it must have been a combined effect of the firecrackers and ammonium nitrate explosion. I'm not merely writing this, I've a good number of points to support this.

Firstly, we know that the ship with ammonium nitrate was docked in that shipyard for years now, and having suffered the effects of climate over the years it was obviously less immune to external forces.

Before I state the main point, let's highlight @ikk157's point. Ammonium nitrate can in no way explode on its own, and as he said it's scientifically proven.

Another thing to note, if you've seen the various videos circulating about the impact of the explosion, have y'all noted that forceful impact which ripped everything apart? There was, a video of a woman who'd have almost been flung off the second floor of her building if the rails of the balcony hadn't been there. Simple and sweet logic, IT CAN'T BE FIRECRACKERS ALONE. That's not how firecrackers impact happens. There'd been a massive explosion of a fireworks factory a few months ago in India also. But it didn't produce an impact in anyway near to what happened in Lebanon.

So coming right to the main point, my mind suggests this theory - the fire DID start in the fireworks which exploded and created spread the fire. This fire in turn ignited the ammonium nitrate, which in turn exploded producing that shockwave impact and hence widespread damage. We can't deny the fact that 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate did explode however true that it can't explode on its own.

To sum up, I've a few other things to say. I bet much agree with Dean and rudra that the truth won't come to light unless it's an external agency doing the investigation into the case.

Also, these firework factories and ship storing ammonium nitrate aren't something you'd expect so close to a residential area. This incident could've been avoided but yeah, fate had otherwise.

[ikk157]

Hmmmm .....OK food for thought .,.. I'm thinking but not completely convinced it was fireworks.  Maybe an alternate theory.  It did get ignited from a neighbouring fire but parts of it only got ignited initially that required the fire engineers to be called in to attend to the fire inside Silo 12.  Like it was not an immediate main event explosion that happened with the ammonium nitrate.  There were small fires inside the silo where the tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored that preceded resulting in smaller explosions before the big one. Those smaller explosions could easily have sounded like fire crackers. I'm open to agreeing that maybe the ammonium nitrate did not combust in themselves - maybe there was something else that caught fire in the Silo first and started a chain reaction?

I also agree with @rudra we probably are never going to get to the truth of what really happened, unless the world demands an external investigation, and even then, maybe like that airplane that got shot down - was it in Ukraine near Russia - MH17? - or with the Kashoggi event in Turkey, we will only hear what the investigators think we need to hear, keeping the real truth away from us and only providing it to corrupt Government leaders who negotiate the truth for public consumption.  It's not only Lebanon leaders who are corrupt - they're just not as sophisticated at being corrupt as the world leaders of the "1st world".  

The ammonium nitrate wasn’t stored in silos, the silos had grain (they are on the large building NEXT to the warehouse that caught fire). So it for sure has nothing to do with the silos.

As for everyone insisting that it has nothing to do with fireworks, it’s literally a firework warehouse/factory that caught fire, what else would it be apart from the fireworks? Some basic common sense required here. Not to mention that it’s not only the sound, but also the visuals. If you pay attention at the timestamp I’ve posted above, you’d instantly understand my point. 

To add to that, many sources say the fire started off with the fireworks, so throwing in our own theories is quite unnecessary and outright misleading to those who aren’t as informed of the situation.

And to those saying it wad JUST the fireworks that caused the explosion. Hell to the no. 

The combustion of the fireworks started initially, then the ammonium nitrate accelerated that reaction and BOOM! Not to mention that it it was actually a firework factory (again, we dont know for sure if it was a factory or just a warehouse) then that also means they’ve got all sorts of raw explosive material on site to manufacture these fireworks. So not only was the combustion of the fireworks themselves accelerated by the ammonium nitrate, but also the combustion of the raw material used to make these fireworks.

As you can see, it’s BOTH the fireworks and ammonium nitrate that caused this. It’s not one of them. 

As for not getting to know the true answer, it’s actually not an issue with getting enough demand for an investigation, but an issue of the labanese corrupt government trying to hide that this was completely their fault. They are the ones that not only stored dangerous material next to a thriving city, but also had it improperly stored for 6 years straight.

Edit: I suggest reading through this https://time.com/5875922/fireworks-ammon...explosion/

[Mashiro]

I'm a bit late to reply to all previous messages. Yes, ammonium nitrate in itself is not directly an explosive chemical substance. Under the right conditions it can however explode in a very aggressive and fueled combustion. We probably have reached the stage at which it was changing its structure due to wrong storage and handing. And that additional fire of whatever it was (actually don't matter if it were fireworks because any fire source could have caused it) of course helped a lot. I did a bit of research. With the wrong conditions ammonium nitrate will deteriorate and its substance will change. With the heat coming from the fire the process has been accelerated and the ammonium nitrate in effect fueled the fire and caused a massive combustion releasing a lot of power. In fact with heat and pressure through destillation chemists turn ammonium nitrate into the base component of explosives called nitric acid.

Today while driving on my way to work I listened to some news regarding this from a local radio station "Cosmo". According to their sources the government has been warned about this issues and dangers about some months ago (I think they said two and a half). And they did nothing as can be seen. Experts told them about the dangers and problems with the storage conditions.

A lot has gone wrong in this case but most importantly it seems that the government knew about this early enough and decided to do nothing.

[sagher]

It was a sad incidence as news update Lebanon Govt resign from government. but i have some questions which confusing me. as per early news the media says there was a welding works near storage and that is the main cause of fire which converted into blast just in seconds. but i just ask why highly flammable and extremely explosive material are stack in Tons of quantity in same place which seen too much close to port. one of my friend who is in armed force says we are never stack large quantity of explosive materials together. it was stack into bunkers. and resigns of Govt raises more questions on them. it's mean they don't have words to explain this failure or they are involved in it. Beruit is almost destroyed and takes many years to become rise again. it was not less then a nuclear blast because of ammonium nitrate. some false media spreading that some one target a massle on storage and make a false videos that was not a good way. because these kind of videos prevent mindset to wrong ways specially people who far from region. May ALLAH almighty protect AL-jazair countries from this kind of destroy and loss of lives. Syria, Iraq, Afghan, Yemen, somalia, and now Lebanon.

[xdude]

Whatever the reason its the government is whom to be blamed. I think That's something everyone can agree with. But actually its bureaucracy too. Because in most countries like Lebanon government works usually don't give a shit about their work and responsibilities. So it's not just politicians' fault but officials too.

Form what I heard and head there was a ball throwing was happening among Court, Harbour authorities, and some government departments. It's amazing to see why even they kept it there in the first place, in a densely populated area. Resign of government won't change much if those stupid officials are still there. I think the government should be kept going. Resign is the best thing for them since then someone else has to think about what do to next for the damage and result.

Ofc fireworks wouldn't start but I think it's true some sort of firework storage was going up too just become the big bang. I can hear it in those videos. I'm no chemical export but I guess the heat must have done the trick. after 6 years in storage without any maintenance, I'm sure ammonium nitrate had in some compressed state which might have even helped in another way.

[deanhills]

I've been watching as much news as I could get about the blast and about Lebanon today as I was hoping there would be an announcement that XYZ is going to investigate the cause of the explosion, but nothing so far.  Apparently for an overseas agency like the UN to do the investigation, they first would have to be invited by the Lebanese Government.  And there is no Lebanese Government as the Prime Minister and Cabinet resigned today.  So now they have to try and get an Emergency Cabinet in being, but wow, it's complicated as this has to follow a recipe.  I.e. so many Christians, so many Muslims, the Prime Minister can't be XYZ etc etc.  Also, people are cynical and deserve to be so, as those who are going to be asked to put a Government together may be the ones who are the problem - like they have vested interests through entrenched corruption of decades old that they wish to protect and this may guide the appointments of the Interim Government.

Only bit of news I did hear is that the Prime Minister who resigned today admitted that he had received a report in July of this year about the danger of the ammonium nitrate storage and very critical warning that this may create an explosion that would destroy Beirut.  At least he took responsibility for the Government that failed to act on the report.

However, I did manage to find this article in The Guardian that makes good sense - but it's still a theory of cause put together by The Guardian and Bellingcat investigation by working through cell phone videos.  It maintains that there must have been also bags of explosives stored in the same silo as the ammonium nitrate. These explosives were also confiscated products - so I guess Silo 12 was a Silo used for confiscated materials and the picture I had in my mind of only the ammonium nitrate was wrong - there must have been lots of other materials stored in it and it had to have been a HUGE storage facility.

A Port Official said that just before the fire started technicians were working on fixing a silo door with an electric drill, and he thought it could have been a spark from the electric drill that could have started the fire with the explosives.

The claim that fireworks were being stored in the same warehouse as the ammonium nitrate appears to be confirmed by phone footage, apparently filmed by a port worker from the roof of the grain silos that overlooked the seat of the biggest blast – now a 150-metre-wide crater of seawater.

In the brief section of footage posted on social media, a long warehouse – running parallel to the grain silo and separated by a road – is visible, with smoke coming out of the windows on its west side and from the roof.

Geotagging by the investigative website Bellingcat and the Guardian, and comparison of features, strongly suggests that this warehouse is located at the very centre of the devastating blast –locating the initial fire and subsequent explosions in the same area of warehousing.

As the person on the silo roof films the north end of the warehouse from their vantage point, the smoke thickens and then a dozen or so white flashes can be seen occurring in rapid succession inside, triggering thicker red flames that quickly spread southwards before detonating a major explosion in the building within seconds that causes the person filming to duck for cover.

Shehadi said he had spoken to former colleagues at the port who said workers were attempting to fix a gate outside warehouse 12 with an electrical tool ahead of the blast. “This was at 5pm, and after 30 minutes they saw smoke. Firefighters came, and so did state security. Everyone died.”

A video posted to social media depicted firefighters tackling a small blaze in a warehouse that resembled a port building. “It is my belief that this repair work led to this catastrophe,” Shehadi said.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/a...-in-hangar

In the meanwhile, when Al Jazeera's reporter was reporting with the harbour in the background, I saw a large shovel engine moving earth around the area of the blast - so was wondering whether if and when someone is finally appointed to do the investigation, what would be left over to investigate.  Did they cordon the area off?  I haven't seen any protective barriers with police guarding the harbour.  Everything is in chaos with protesters milling around.

[ikk157]

I've been watching as much news as I could get about the blast and about Lebanon today as I was hoping there would be an announcement that XYZ is going to investigate the cause of the explosion, but nothing so far.  Apparently for an overseas agency like the UN to do the investigation, they first would have to be invited by the Lebanese Government.  And there is no Lebanese Government as the Prime Minister and Cabinet resigned today.  So now they have to try and get an Emergency Cabinet in being, but wow, it's complicated as this has to follow a recipe.  I.e. so many Christians, so many Muslims, the Prime Minister can't be XYZ etc etc.  Also, people are cynical and deserve to be so, as those who are going to be asked to put a Government together may be the ones who are the problem - like they have vested interests through entrenched corruption of decades old that they wish to protect and this may guide the appointments of the Interim Government.

Only bit of news I did hear is that the Prime Minister who resigned today admitted that he had received a report in July of this year about the danger of the ammonium nitrate storage and very critical warning that this may create an explosion that would destroy Beirut.  At least he took responsibility for the Government that failed to act on the report.

However, I did manage to find this article in The Guardian that makes good sense - but it's still a theory of cause put together by The Guardian and Bellingcat investigation by working through cell phone videos.  It maintains that there must have been also bags of explosives stored in the same silo as the ammonium nitrate. These explosives were also confiscated products - so I guess Silo 12 was a Silo used for confiscated materials and the picture I had in my mind of only the ammonium nitrate was wrong - there must have been lots of other materials stored in it and it had to have been a HUGE storage facility.

A Port Official said that just before the fire started technicians were working on fixing a silo door with an electric drill, and he thought it could have been a spark from the electric drill that could have started the fire with the explosives.  

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/a...-in-hangar

In the meanwhile, when Al Jazeera's reporter was reporting with the harbour in the background, I saw a large shovel engine moving earth around the area of the blast - so was wondering whether if and when someone is finally appointed to do the investigation, what would be left over to investigate.  Did they cordon the area off?  I haven't seen any protective barriers with police guarding the harbour.  Everything is in chaos with protesters milling around.

Excellent and very detailed info you provided right there!

Here’s my opinion on what grabbed my attention from the information you provided:

First off, the fact that they received a report stating the danger of how and where the ammonium nitrate was stored and they did nothing about it is outright ridiculous. And that’s not even considering the fact that it’s been like that for 6 years!!!! Just goes to prove how corrupt their government is. The report clearly described what could’ve happened, and unfortunately merely a month or less later, that’s exactly what happened.

Secondly, the reports of a door repair using an electric drill does explain how the fire started. Electric or not, when drilling through metal especially a lot of sparks are created. Which is plenty to start a fire on any nearby combustable material. 

As for the video you were talking about with the guy standing on the roof next to the fire, that’s exactly the video I uploaded to ufile.io and posted the link to in a post above. So if you want to personally have a look at it, it’ll be right there!

They’re currently trying to clean up as much as possible all around beirut. But especially the completely destroyed port which is now nothing but a bunch of rubble. There’s really nothing on-site that’s there to investigate. There are documents and everything on what exactly was stored in each warehouse/silo, so an on-site investigation won’t be of any use... and that’s also considering the fact that everything is basically nothing but rubble now, so trying to look for anything specific would prove insanely hard if even possible.

Bare in mind that Lebanon’s economy has been severely collapsing even before the explosion. And the port was one of the very few sources of income “holding it by a thin string”. But now that the port is completely destroyed, their economy pretty much completely collapsed. Hence clearing as much of the rubble as possible, as fast as possible, is something they must do so they can start building a new port as soon as humanly possible.

[deanhills]

Thx for the feedback @ikk157  Awesome you had already posted the video of the guy who took it.  I'm sure he must be making lots of money from it.

Today in the news looks like the port is opening up with 12 cranes working out of 16.  That's good news at least.  But probably easy for them to do considering that the Government wasn't as involved with running the port - like had a hands off approach and probably has very little understanding for how it works, except that the port is the only place where money can still change hands.  And it has to get emergency supplies, medicine and food and particularly grain as a matter of survival.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/b...44497.html

I'm looking at that explosion in the same way as the Air Crash Investigation Specialists I've been watching on TV.  Even though everything was devastated, there may have been clues relevant to engineers, and cell phone footage that could have been collected on the spot.  Problem is that interviews should have been held and professionally documented right after the blast happened, because the longer time that elapses, the more likely stories may change.  Human memories are inclined to add or subtract things when they remember things and are questioned for the first time vs, recollections of events weeks later.  For me I can't wait to see this investigation being launched on a professional as well as unbiased international level.  I'm sure there must be plenty of experts outside Lebanon who are itching to be involved in the investigation as it's going to be a mother of investigations.  Hopefully they won't be covering up stuff.  But since the Caretaker Government is a resigned Government, maybe chances could be good that they will look for an objective inquiry by professionals from outside Lebanon.