Explosion in Beirut

[patdog]

Holy crap!

 

[Xenomorph]

Dude sighs deeply like... 17'n Beirut man.

 

[Shmuley]

Yeah, that's not gonna buff out.

 

[GloryDawg]

When I went to Marine Corp Boot Camp one of my Drill Instructor was in the Marine Barracks in Beirut when it was attacked. I bumped into him a few years later out in the fleet and told me of the experience.

 

[WrapItDog]

[TWEET]1290726324810715137[/TWEET]

 

[BlueRidgeMtns]

I hope he got the renters insurance**

 

[WrapItDog]

[TWEET]1290736291190054913[/TWEET]

 

[She Mate Me]

Early reports are 78 dead and thousands injured. What a tragedy.

Certainly looks to me like some kind of fireworks caused a rather large fire/explosion, but that clearly ignited a massive amount of something much more volatile. Appears it may have been Ammonium Nitrate.

 

[RocketDawg]

The most recent thing I've read is that it was a storage area for sodium nitrate (NaNO3), perhaps among other things. Trump said a few minutes ago that it was an "attack", but it could have easily been a careless accident.

He was questioned about it and he said the generals viewed it as an attack. I guess they're not sure, or didn't share any intelligence about it. On the video there seemed to be a visible fire a split second before the explosion, but that's supposedly how you initiate an explosion of the stuff - set it on fire (from googling articles - I'm no chemist, even though I took Chemistry from Dr Sheely). It could have been either intentional or accidental.

 

[RocketDawg]

Wasn't was an explosion at some kind of plant in Texas in the past few years. Can't remember what kind. Maybe fertilizer? But I think it took out a couple of blocks? Or maybe they just had to evacuate a few blocks. Be interested to see that explosion just to compare it to this one.

Yes, I think you're right. I think that explosion was during the evening when very few workers were there, if I recall correctly. It was huge; maybe not like the Beirut one, but large nevertheless.

There was also large explosion somewhere in Georgia in a sugar factory some years ago that was caused by sugar dust in the air. Apparently sugar, flour, etc., dust in the air is quite explosive.

 

[SirBarksalot]

Friend said the OKC bombing was 2 tons of ammonium nitrate...this speculatively was 2800 tons.

 

[T-TownDawgg]

A fireworks explosion is possible.

Anyone remember the fireworks explosions in Columbus in the late 80s(?) I know it was no where near the magnitude of this, but I remember hearing it from 40 miles away.

 

[She Mate Me]

Since it's appearing that this was an Ammonium Nitrate explosion, here's the account of what may still be the worst industrial accident in US history. It was also caused by a detonation of Ammonium Nitrate...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

 

[RocketDawg]

Since it's appearing that this was an Ammonium Nitrate explosion, here's the account of what may still be the worst industrial accident in US history. It was also caused by a detonation of Ammonium Nitrate...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

Beirut was sodium nitrate, not ammonium nitrate (last I heard anyway).

 

[WrapItDog]

Beirut was sodium nitrate, not ammonium nitrate (last I heard anyway).

 

[turkish]

Second time I’ve seen these photos. What am I supposed to get from them?

 

[WrapItDog]

The building with the smoke coming out of the windows and the building full of 1 ton Nitroprill bags is the same building.

The Oklahoma City bombing used 2 tons of ammonia nitrate. That building supposedly had 2750 tons on Nitroprill.

 

[She Mate Me]

Beirut was sodium nitrate, not ammonium nitrate (last I heard anyway).

I'm certainly no authority, but Ammonium nitrate is what's being reported everywhere I look.

 

[RocketDawg]

I'm certainly no authority, but Ammonium nitrate is what's being reported everywhere I look.

Yes, you're right. What I was reading and hearing yesterday said sodium nitrate; today it seems to have been confirmed to be ammonium nitrate, which makes more sense. I don't even know what sodium nitrate is used for. It could be fertilizer as well.

 

[RocketDawg]

What is Nitroprill? Google didn't help much.

 

[turkish]

What is Nitroprill? Google didn't help much.

I don’t know either, but I bet me and you pinged a “watch list” somewhere.

 

[fishwater99]

So these 3 broke in and started the fire, what are the doing?

 

[RocketDawg]

Yeah, probably.

 

[WrapItDog]

So these 3 broke in and started the fire, what are the doing?

I think the photo with the 3 guys was taken a some point before the fire showing what was in the building (could have been days or years prior to the explosion). The first photo is from a video taken during the fire. The yellow circles indicate it is same door at the storage facility. I think the video that the first photo was from is in this tweet.

[TWEET]1290761058257428490[/TWEET]

 

[TaleofTwoDogs]

What is Nitroprill? Google didn't help much.

From duckduckgo:

"Nitroprill HD" is a knock-off product of the trademarked Nitropril, a premium grade porous prilled ammonium nitrate manufactured and sold by the Orica Mining Services in Australia. It is used as a commercial explosive in mining and quarrying.

 

[TaleofTwoDogs]

In one of the videos you can see that several cars pulled to the side of the highway to rubberneck. Bad, Bad choice.

 

[Xenomorph]

Knock off or not I’d say it works.

 

[Cooterpoot]

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