Explosion in Beirut

[Nice Guy Eddie 13512]

Where else are these chemicals stored, especially in the US? I get that they can be stored safely but if an unexpected problem occurs, we see example after example of the magnified problems that can be created. Would the US govt even know if a company has a stockpile?

Edited August 6, 2020 by Nice Guy Eddie

[Doc Reeves 6434]

30 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Where else are these chemicals stored, especially in the US? I get that they can be stored safely but if an unexpected problem occurs, we see example after example of the magnified problems that can be created. Would the US govt even know if a company has a stockpile?

I want to say that I have heard that stockpiles like this are self monitored by companies for the ATF since OKC

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

32 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Where else are these chemicals stored, especially in the US? I get that they can be stored safely but if an unexpected problem occurs, we see example after example of the magnified problems that can be created. Would the US govt even know if a company has a stockpile?

They’re “supposed to” know, but the regulation, tracking and enforcement of it hasn’t been real high on the spending priorities list, unless something has changed since the West incident.  

[Nice Guy Eddie 13512]

39 minutes ago, Doc Reeves said:

I want to say that I have heard that stockpiles like this are self monitored by companies for the ATF since OKC

Self monitoring worries me. 

[Smax 3800]

Guess they forgot the "no politics" recommendation in the thread title. November cannot come fast enough.

November isnt going to change anything, the losing side is going bitch and moan for the next four years

[wood 11226]

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Where else are these chemicals stored, especially in the US? I get that they can be stored safely but if an unexpected problem occurs, we see example after example of the magnified problems that can be created. Would the US govt even know if a company has a stockpile?

There's no way to know where everything like this is. The bigger companies that deal with large quantities of hazmats all the time are usually very good at it. But there are, of course, smaller companies who don't even know what they have stored in their own facilities. Working for a long time in the fire station nearest AMD, we got regular tours out there. They had their shit wired tight. For us, they were the least of our worries. It was the other gazillion random, anonymous warehouses that kept me awake at night. You never know what's in those things.

[B00M 6416]

9 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

I haven't read the entire thread, so sorry if this has already been posted.

 

The reddish brownish color in the cloud after the explosion (which you can see in some of the posted videos) means ammonium nitrate explosion. At high temps, the exothermic decomposition reaction of ammonium nitrate produces NO2, a brown gas at high temps, which turns into some other nitrogen oxide (can't remember which one) as it cools, so the red-brown color quickly fades.

 

It's too bad you weren't in on page 1 to quench the firework vs munition debate. How toxic or carcinogenic is that gas? It doesn't look like something you'd want to inhale for hours or days...

[You don't know me 1161]

14 hours ago, XYZ said:

Typical third-world country bullshit with a corrupt, inoperative justice system. The judge who ignored the pleas, I very much doubt that he will be held accountable, because they are generally untouchable.

But "then-director of Lebanese Customs Shafik Merhi" will certainly pay the price for not being emphatic enough.

[Captainant 27677]

24 minutes ago, B00M said:

It's too bad you weren't in on page 1 to quench the firework vs munition debate. How toxic or carcinogenic is that gas? It doesn't look like something you'd want to inhale for hours or days...

NO2 turns into nitric acid on contact with water, so it's deffo bad to breathe and generally be in contact with

['stache 21816]

Just heard on the radio that the city only took 20% of the blast. The sea and the silo took the rest of the blow. That’s insane how powerful the blast truly was. The shockwave is mesmerizing to watch.
 

[crash_davis 23113]

7 minutes ago, Captainant said:

NO2 turns into nitric acid on contact with water, so it's deffo bad to breathe and generally be in contact with

I think the flesh and limbs shearing shockwave saved people from having to die from the gas. God works in mysterious ways.

[davidg 4038]

2 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Where else are these chemicals stored, especially in the US? I get that they can be stored safely but if an unexpected problem occurs, we see example after example of the magnified problems that can be created. Would the US govt even know if a company has a stockpile?

Do you even fertilizer, bro?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Fertilizer_Company_explosion

[Buzzrock 14921]

I honestly can’t believe it only killed 135. I’m glad that big building was a silo, because in the first videos it looked like housing or offices.

[Captainant 27677]

8 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

I honestly can’t believe it only killed 135. I’m glad that big building was a silo, because in the first videos it looked like housing or offices.

On the other hand, that silo was Lebanon's main reserves for grain for the country and the blast destroyed about 85% of their reserves. Hunger and pandemic, just another day in 2020

[wood 11226]

On 8/4/2020 at 1:09 PM, woohorn said:

Wild how the explosion blew out any fire that was there initially.

I doubt there was much left there to burn once it all went boom...

 

[wood 11226]

On 8/4/2020 at 1:42 PM, RPM said:

Owning a condo with 2 glass exterior walls in Beirut.

Pretty amazing seeing all those windows ripped out of the walls, frames and all --- with the glass unbroken.

[crash_davis 23113]

1 minute ago, wood said:

Pretty amazing seeing all those windows ripped out of the walls, frames and all --- with the glass unbroken.

Those window manufacturers should start making phone screens. #serendipity

[crash_davis 23113]

 

[Firemans4Horn 18051]

50 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

I honestly can’t believe it only killed 135. I’m glad that big building was a silo, because in the first videos it looked like housing or offices.

I wonder if they’ll ever get an accurate death count. Seems like if you were within a quarter mile of that you would be vaporized. 

[RPM 26321]

Batwindows

[clapclapclap 9000]

This has really rocked the Casbah

Edited August 6, 2020 by clapclapclap

[wood 11226]

59 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:

I wonder if they’ll ever get an accurate death count. Seems like if you were within a quarter mile of that you would be vaporized. 

Yeah I'm sure the numbers of 'missing' will go up dramatically in time.

[ABSR 5315]

1 hour ago, wood said:

Pretty amazing seeing all those windows ripped out of the walls, frames and all --- with the glass unbroken.

Bullet proof glass, but with paper-mache framing.

[RPM 26321]

1 hour ago, clapclapclap said:

This has really rocked the Casbah

Username checks out, but Shareef don't like it

[bolverk 29683]

24 minutes ago, slorch said:

Did i say ypou were wrong?  No I did not.   You've now postedtwo or more times bemoaning how a silo of grain was wiped out; while ignoring the fact that the explosive material was in storage nearby for over 6 years.  Six fucking years...but no time to take precautions, right?

Lebanon is known for doing that shit on purpose.

Nothing childish about my reply.  I was not antagonizing you. There's nothing wrong about your initial post, Do I have your permission to address issues related to your point?

Lobo is obviously messing with folks who initially hypothesized it was a bomb. That said, I'd be a little more careful about accusing "Lebanon" as using humans or civil assets as shields for malfeasance. That kind of shit has been used by Hezbollah which, as far as I understand, is essentially a Syrian/Iranian backed insurgency against which Lebanon's weak government hasn't been effective at pushing out.

You've got to remember that about a third of its people are Christian and that the country is traditionally run by a power sharing agreement among various religious and ethnic groups.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/le.html

[RPM 26321]

Did anyone other than Trump think this was a bomb? Nobody else even mentioned it. Watching the videos it's was pretty obvious that wasn't the case and the backstory came out almost immediately.

[Trey3216 15346]

1 hour ago, clapclapclap said:

This has really rocked the Casbah

 

3 hours ago, You don't know me said:

But "then-director of Lebanese Customs Shafik Merhi" will certainly pay the price for not being emphatic enough.

Shafik don't like it  

 

[MagicSoccerSpray 1732]

2 hours ago, slorch said:

Some people fight wars to win...

Lebanon Hezbollah is real keen on using human shields and intermingling their military operations within civilian ‘targets.’

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes

 

37 minutes ago, slorch said:

Did i say ypou were wrong?  No I did not.   You've now postedtwo or more times bemoaning how a silo of grain was wiped out; while ignoring the fact that the explosive material was in storage nearby for over 6 years.  Six fucking years...but no time to take precautions, right?

Lebanon Hezbollah is known for doing that shit on purpose.

Nothing childish about my reply.  I was not antagonizing you. There's nothing wrong about your initial post, Do I have your permission to address issues related to your point?

 

 

 

Hezbollah, not Lebanon. Lebanon needs to get it's shit together for sure, but don't blame the people when they have to choose between speaking up and being car-bombed.

[Captainant 27677]

1 minute ago, RPM said:

Several thousand people on social media say zombies are real. I'm talking intelligence reports or legitimate news.

To answer your question: the bomb/attack theory was bouncing around social media and then boosted by the president who claimed his joint chiefs told him as much. Joint chiefs said that they said so such thing, and then the president back tracked to the public line by the Pentagon.

There is not a known/public credible report that this was an attack, and there is considerable evidence that this is maladministration/negligence by the Lebanese government to store explosives in such an unsafe way for so long. My money is on plain old incompetence, negligence, and maladministration by the Lebanese govt/port authority

[RPM 26321]

3 minutes ago, Captainant said:

My money is on plain old incompetence, negligence, and maladministration by the Lebanese govt/port authority

['stache 21816]

22 minutes ago, Captainant said:

To answer your question: the bomb/attack theory was bouncing around social media and then boosted by the president who claimed his joint chiefs told him as much. Joint chiefs said that they said so such thing, and then the president back tracked to the public line by the Pentagon.

There is not a known/public credible report that this was an attack, and there is considerable evidence that this is maladministration/negligence by the Lebanese government to store explosives in such an unsafe way for so long. My money is on plain old incompetence, negligence, and maladministration by the Lebanese govt/port authority

Yep, that seems to be almost certainly the cause. Someone asked earlier, but usually some group of radicals will claim credit even where it's not credible. None of that here? I read that there are letters to certain administrators over many years outlining the danger and asking for a solution to have the materials removed which went ignored. If I were on the receiving end of those letters I'd probably just take myself out because the magnitude of this fuckup is beyond comprehension at this point.

[Helobious 9454]

2 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said:

I wonder if they’ll ever get an accurate death count. Seems like if you were within a quarter mile of that you would be vaporized. 

On the other hand the explosion was in the middle of an industrial area during non-peak work hours. Could’ve been much worse if it was a residential or commercial area. 

[Caver60 395]

6 hours ago, Doc Reeves said:

I want to say that I have heard that stockpiles like this are self monitored by companies for the ATF since OKC

This is more or less true in my experience. You self-monitor and keep your own records of quantities and usage and then the ATF shows up for inspections every 3 years and audits those records and your magazines for compliance. And that's pretty much it. Ammonium nitrate, however, is an oxidizer and not even considered an explosive by the ATF. All that is required by the ATF is that oxidizers are kept a certain distance away from actual explosives (determined by a table of distances and the quantities and nature of the explosives and oxidizers being stored).

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

Lebanon is known for storing dangerous chemicals next to grain silos!

- @slorch

[Captainant 27677]

1 hour ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

Lebanon is known for storing dangerous chemicals next to grain silos!

- @slorch

I mean, that's pretty much what happened lol. Complete with a six year paper trail all the way back to when the ship and its cargo was impounded. This stuff is pretty easy to get complacent around apparently, Texas City and West can attest to that.

Only difference is that this was literally 10 times the quantity of ammonium nitrate that went off in 2013 in West

[0xdeadbeef 1651]

best recap I've come across 

 

[Brothahorn 10087]

 

Pretty big OR

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

3 minutes ago, Brothahorn said:

 

Pretty big OR

There are a couple videos I've seen that show a missile streak right before the big ka boom, but like everything you see today can you really believe your eyes ?

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

2 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

There are a couple videos I've seen that show a missile streak right before the big ka boom, but like everything you see today can you really believe your eyes ?

Yeah but it was on fire before that.  President just trying to cover his ass.

[washparkhorn 9939]

49 minutes ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

best recap I've come across 

 

Terrific recap. Thanks.

[Rip76 4928]

3 hours ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Yeah but it was on fire before that.  President just trying to cover his ass.

Yes my thoughts too.

 “Ok remember that stockpile of Ammonium Nitrate stored in Lebanon?“

”Yes”

”Let’s fire a rocket into it.”

”Why waste a rocket, it’s probably going to blow anyway.”

”Good point”
 

Edited August 8, 2020 by Rip76

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

1 minute ago, Rip76 said:

Yes my thoughts too.

 “Ok remember that stockpile of Ammonium Nitrate stored in Lebenon?“

”Yes”

”Let’s fire a rocket into it.”

”Why waste a rocket, it’s probably going to blow anyway.”

”Good point”
 

I always think about your grandfather when shit like this happens.  That pic of him with his badge always haunts me a bit.  

[Rip76 4928]

Just now, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I always think about your grandfather when shit like this happens.  That pic of him with his badge always haunts me a bit.  

Thanks for remembering.

I was thinking about posting my mom and dad’s stories next time the TC Disaster link popped back up.  Pretty scary stuff.

[HiggyBaby 2529]

SIAP. Lots of negligence.


https://news.yahoo.com/russian-owner-abandoned-ship-full-104713006.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb&tsrc=fb

[crash_davis 23113]

damn. somewhat graphic.

Spoiler

 

 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Damn tough fucker right there. He's gonna have a great story to tell the kiddies.

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

On 8/6/2020 at 8:55 AM, B00M said:

It's too bad you weren't in on page 1 to quench the firework vs munition debate. How toxic or carcinogenic is that gas? It doesn't look like something you'd want to inhale for hours or days...

Well, something set off the ammonium nitrate. The smaller initial blast heated shit up enough to set off the ammonium nitrate (the second big blast). Could have been just about anything- stored fireworks, stored munitions, bomb, whatever.

To answer your questions, If you were in that cloud , you would asphyxiate pretty quick. NO2 is a very strong oxidizer, so as you asphyxiated, your lungs, nasal passages, eyes, etc would be severely burning (in other words, you would suffocate in agony).

(Speaking of being an oxidizer, I believe at one time NO2 was used as an oxidizer for rocket fuel.)

But if you were close enough to be in that cloud, then the actual explosion would already have gotten you anyway.

I don't think its really an air pollutant to be concerned about however. Its pretty reactive, so it wouldn't take too long before even that mushroom cloud would disperse and react to form ozone or whatever.

 

On 8/6/2020 at 9:20 AM, Captainant said:

NO2 turns into nitric acid on contact with water, so it's deffo bad to breathe and generally be in contact with

 

This is correct, NO2 is used industrially to produce nitric acid, but I think just NO2's general reactivity is what would be worrisome if you were exposed, not the formation of HNO3 specifically.

 

[Buzzrock 14921]

Are you talking about the big white sphere that dissipates quickly? I assumed that was water vapor, no?

[Johnny Chimpo 478]

34 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

Are you talking about the big white sphere that dissipates quickly? I assumed that was water vapor, no?

The white sphere was water vapor. The red gas cloud billowing straight up was NO2. 

[Parliament 14260]

The plot thickens?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-security-blast-seismology-idUSKCN2591S2