Research on an explosion in the port of the Lebanese port city of Beirut focuses on how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilizers, were stored at the facility for six years, and why nothing was done about it.
Tuesday’s explosion blew up a crater in the harbor and hit the city like a freight train, killing more than a hundred people and injuring thousands. The buildings were broken miles from the city.
AP analyzes some recent fatal explosions involving ammonium nitrate…
Donald Trump was asked that some “great generals” told him that they thought Tuesday’s explosion in Beirut was an “attack” involving “some kind of bomb.” The consultation was put on the back of Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who sought to cancel the Array saying he was “always receiving information” about the explosion in the Lebanese capital, but that “most people think it was an accident, as he reported.
Once again, the president seemed to speculate dangerously on the basis that everything about the incident was not entirely clear.
This photo would be that of an organization heading toward the initial chimney that is spreading, in order to restrict the damage it may cause. Then the big explosion happened.
While there are many reasons why this is not exactly what would happen in other cities, it gives others who do not know Beirut an imaginable understanding of the affected area.
The Eiffel Tower in Paris will extinguish its luminaires tonight in solidarity with Lebanon, those who lost their lives and those who were injured.
“We offer our sincerest condolences to their loved ones and are working to provide the affected US citizens and their families all possible consular assistance. We are working closely with local authorities to determine if any additional US citizens were affected,” the embassy said in a statement Wednesday.
The embassy said all its workers were unharmed.
According to CNN, who analysed the satellite imagery, the crater has a diameter of 124 metres, with an accuracy of +/- 10 metres. For comparison the pitch at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu is 105 metres long.
Mark Esper, the U.S. Defense Secretary, said he thought the explosion was a twist of fate and that the United States had not noticed anything to the contrary.
Yesterday, President Trump spoke of an attack, a charge he rejected through Pentagon officials.
Esper also stated that the United States is ready to provide all mandatory assistance.
According to Bild journalist Julian Rkcke, the captain of the Rhosus, the shipment that brought 2,750 ammonium nitrate to Beirut said it had just sank.
The Iran Red Crescent selects the belongings of emergency equipment at Tehran’s Mehr-Abbot airport. Iran said it sent a hospital and emergency aid to Beirut to help those injured and seriously injured in the explosion.
Clean
Volunteers clear the streets of many beirut neighborhoods.
The one fact we haven’t been able to get definitive evidence for yet is where the Rhosus actually is now. Everything suggests she is moored either in or close to Beirut harbour, but it’s not entirely clear that is definitely the case.
A 2014 article on FleetMon, a maritime news site, referring to Rhosus’s, left “locked in Beirut” loaded with “ammonium nitrate.”
It is a crisis in each and every sense of the word: 135 dead and the death toll is expected to increase; 5,000 injured with a fitness formula already under a terrible strain of Covid-19; Another 300,000 people have homeless people with few resources to help them; and the prices of exploding from $3 to $5 billion in a country where the economy was already in a terrible state with the currency falling free.
The red, white and green of the Lebanese flag are displayed in buildings around the world, adding Belfast City Hall and Tel Aviv City Hall. The Eiffel Tower has darkness as a sign of solidarity.
Another video of the force of the explosion.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the Beirut explosion alleging that 21 French citizens were injured in the explosion. This is a popular procedure when French citizens are killed or injured abroad.
The UK’s executive health and safety manual on the management of ammonium nitrate. Many things about this, especially to make sure the garage is adequate and that ammonium nitrate is not exposed to fire.
Another video that has gone incredibly viral is this series of a bride the moment it hits the explosion. Which was not so widely shared that the couple came out unscathed.
An explanation of ammonium nitrate, of which 2,750 exploded on Beirut’s docks.
Hundreds of Lebanese are offering shelter to those displaced by the explosion, the hashtag #OurHomesAreOpen on social media.
According to the governor of Beirut, more than 300,000 houses have been too destroyed lately.
Using the hashtag #OurHomesAreOpen in Arabic and English, social media users presented loose extra beds and empty houses to victims, offering their names, phone numbers and main points on the length and location of the accommodation.
“I wanted to do anything about it, I was going crazy,” said the founder of the ThawraMap platform, originally used to identify protest posts, which organizes a list of available beds, adding loose accommodation in hotels.
“Today, many more people are becoming homeless. They go to their circle of family or friends for a day or two and what are they going to do next?” The anti-government activist told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which refused to publish his call for security reasons.
Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan said it is now believed that 135 other people were killed as a result of yesterday’s explosion, but also showed that there would be casualties under the rubble. He also said many other people had disappeared as a result of the explosion.
A total of 5,000 more people were injured, Hassan confirmed, up from the previous 4,000 a day.
This mix of photographs taken from video images shows the massive moment of the ammonium nitrate explosion, which exploded through the chimney that can be noticed in the first image.
This is an undated archive photo, made to be obtained through Tony Vrailas from Rhosus, the shipment suspected to have brought the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate to Beirut, before it was seized when the owner of the shipment abandoned it.
Czech City Search and Rescue (USAR) workers’ corps about to board a plane at Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague, Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is sending 37 search and rescue experts and five dogs to Beirut to assist in the rescue mission. A hundred other people are known to have died in Beirut, however, many are believed to be trapped under the rubble and are expected to increase the death toll.
This is being widely shared on social media. “This city doesn’t give up and keeps rising from the ashes” said one sharer.
One of our colleagues worked on this building, which is a 5-minute walk from the pier. Fortunately, no one was injured because the workplace closed because of the coronavirus.
Lebanon’s government has placed all port officials involved in storage and security since 2014 under house arrest. The ammonium nitrate is said to have been impounded in 2013.
There are officials who will remain at home in the coming days, concluding the investigation and published results. The space arrest will come with those involved in the storage, tracking and investigation of Hangar 12 from 2014 to the present day. Ghada Shreim, Lebanese minister for displaced persons, told reporters at the end of today’s closet meeting.
Hangar 12 was where the ammonium nitrate was stored, the fire appears to have started in Hangar 9. The first, small, white-smoke explosion, may have been a consignment of fireworks in or near Hangar 9.
Health Minister Hamad Hassan showed that the explosion had exacerbated the crisis in Lebanon’s fitness system, which suffers from the coronavirus pandemic.
The scenario calls for everyone to have a determined interaction on the components of politicians, political components, the government and all friendly and sibling countries, as we suffer a shortage of beds and a lack of apparatus for the wounded and those in critical condition,” Hassan said.
The weather in Beirut is pretty good for the next 14 days. Most days, the highs are around 30, with temperatures dropping to 23 at night. With thousands of people owed shelters or tents, the longer the better.
CNN video of the effects of the explosion. The damage is estimated to be between $3 billion and $5 billion. There are more than a hundred dead and 4,000 injured, and the death toll is expected to increase. Another 300,000 people are lately homeless.
A fire crew who responded to the initial chimney at the port, believed to be a chimney container, died when ammonium nitrate exploded. We still have the main points of the fighters who lost their lives.
Completely tragic.
The governor of Beirut has now said that more than 300,000 people were displaced from their homes as it exploded on Tuesday, compared to its previous estimate of 200,000 to 250,000.
“Half of Beirut’s population has homes where long-term living, for the next two weeks,” he said in an interview with Jordanian public broadcaster Al Mamlaka.
He was the son of Mark Urban, BBC diplomatic editor for flagship Newsnight, confirming that the Lebanese government confiscated the ammonium nitrate which he then abandoned for years despite the threat and the fact that it was breaking down.
According to him, experts are likely to have produced the explosion through a chimney in a chimney container on the pier. As you can see in the photographs of the original fireplace, before the massive explosion, there is white smoke, and internal those many small soft explosions with multiple fringes, compatible with the chimneys. Ammonium nitrate detonation causes red smoke to appear after the fungus disappears.
Visual smoke 50 kilometers away
As has also been noted the blast was audible in Cyprus, some 150 kilometres away. Estimates have put the blast at being equivalent to 2.0–2.2 kt of TNT, possibly the sixth biggest ever non-nuclear explosion.
Powerful image.
Beirut port leader says letters were sent to ammonium nitrate
The head of the port of Beirut and the head of customs stated that several letters had been sent to the courts requesting the removal of hazardous materials, which no action had been taken.
The port’s general manager, Hassan Koraytem, told OTV, a station, that the curtains had been placed in a warehouse by court decision, adding that they knew then that the curtains were damaging but “not up to that point.”
“We asked for it to be re-exported, but that didn’t happen. We let the experts and the other people involved decide why,” LbCI Badri Daher, general manager of Lebanese customs, told LBCI.
Reuters reports that an anonymous official source showed that there had been years of about 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the port.
“This is negligence,” the source said, adding that the factor had been debated in committee and before the judges, but “nothing has been done.”
The explosion occurred through a chimney in warehouse number 9 of the port, which extended to warehouse number 12 where ammonium nitrate was stored, the source added.
As mentioned below, the ammonium nitrate was reportedly confiscated from a cargo ship which was abandoned in the port in 2013, either over money or seaworthiness issues.
There are reports of violent confrontations in the centre of the city between citizens and forces loyal to the former prime minister Saad Hariri. There was huge anger across Lebanon at the extremely wealthy ruling class before the explosion.
That’s about 1.2 million euros.
The Guardian’s Russian correspondent has a story about the shipment that would have brought the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate to Beirut. He sent sailed from Georgia to Mozambique in 2013, but was not allowed to leave due to an unspecified dispute. Owner Grechushkin is said to have walked away at the time, abandoning the shipment and its crew. Ammonium nitrate was eventually confiscated and stored in the warehouse where it eventually exploded.
A helicopter over the explosion is looking to put out fires that are still dormant so that it can begin the cleanup operation.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has also said the agency stands “in solidarity with people of Beirut and Lebanon in these tragic and testing times.”
Windows were broken across the city up to 10 km away from the explosion. Just replacing the glass alone across the city is going to be a mammoth task…
U.S. President Donald Trump said the Beirut explosion gave the impression of being a terrible attack that had been carried out with a “bomb of some kind,” and said he had discussed the factor with his “big generals.”
Pentagon officials have now told CNN they have no idea what he was talking about and that there is no indication that it was an attack of any sort.
Sky News reports that Beirut’s port chief told local television that he knew the stored fabrics were dangerous, “but not to that extent.” He said no explosives were stored near the blast site.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that some other port worker admitted that an inspection team had tested ammonium nitrate and said that if it didn’t move, it could “blow up all of Beirut.”
It is worth reading this brief interview with Jad Chaaban. “There is exasperation in the streets and there is a lot of anger,” he says of the rage in Lebanon with the elegance prevailing before the explosion.
It’s amazing that there’s nothing left of the grain silo right next to the explosion.
According to the Lebanese Federation of Hotels, about 90% of Beirut’s institutions were destroyed by the explosion.
The EU will have to send “more than a hundred highly trained firefighters, with vehicles, dogs and equipment, specialized in urban search and rescue” to Beirut to lend a hand in the rescue project after the explosion, said EU Crisis Management Comprojecter Janez Lenarcic. .
The EU has activated its civil coverage mechanism, which the bloc to coordinate the assistance of member states.
If you take a look at Twitter right now, you’ll probably see this report, which says fact checkers at Vice and Lead Stories tested the explosion and concluded it wasn’t a nuclear explosion. They do not appear to comment on the official who improperly stored ammonium nitrate.
Some theories circulate that explosives may have been involved; in general, there does not appear to be any major debate at this time that the main component of the explosion is ammonium nitrate.
That said, Danilo Coppe, an explosives expert in Italy, said he does not believe the explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate. He says ammonium nitrate smoke is yellow, while the smoke from the explosion in Beirut is red and orange.
“Also,” he said, “it wasn’t 2,700 tons that exploded, because if it had been 2,700 tons it would mean a hundred boxes of ammonium nitrate. And a hundred boxes don’t explode simultaneously like this. Everything is imaginable in this life, but I don’t think it was ammonium nitrate that exploded.”
People in Beirut are struggling to get others out of the rubble.
Silos destroyed in the port contained about 85% of the country’s cereals. All wheat is unusable. Seven workers working in the silos are missing.
The account lists missing people, as well as others who have been admitted to the hospital.
Obviously, you can also see the destruction in the surrounding area.
Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud says the damage caused by the explosion is estimated at between $3 billion and $5 billion. “Beyrouth has a devastated townArray … partially destroyed and thousands of people will not be able to return home for two or three months.”
The explosion came when the Lebanese economy was already facing its worst crisis in decades. The coin is in freefall, having lost about 90% since September, and the country is also suffering to deal with the effects of preventing coronavirus. There were 5,062 cases of the disease in the country and 65 deaths, according to figures compiled through Johns Hopkins University.
Follow @Leila_MA if you’re aware of the stage at the apartment in Beirut.
He reported that the explosion resembled a jet plane “breaking the wall of sound” and that the explosion caused “a soft blinding white and ripped by the doors and windows” of his apartment. She was also injured in the explosion, requiring stitches on her foot.
Numerous offers of aid have been made to Lebanon, with France, Turkey and the Gulf states among the countries offering help in the aftermath of the Beirut explosion.
France has 55 security guards, 6 tons of gym equipment and 10 emergency doctors.
“France is still in the aspect of Lebanon and the Lebanese people. He is in a position to provide assistance in accordance with the wishes expressed through the Lebanese authorities,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Twitter.
The Turkish Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH) is helping to find survivors, digging through the rubble to search for other people and bodies, while the organization has also established a kitchen to help provide food to those in need in a Palestinian refugee camp. .
Kuwait has sent medical aid and other items, while the Kuwait Red Crescent has said it will offer all mandatory assistance.
Russia has announced that it will send five medical device aircraft, a cash hospital and medical personnel, as non-public protective devices amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Netherlands is sending a specialized search and rescue team to Lebanon, made up of 67 doctors, nurses, firefighters and police to search for survivors trapped under the rubble.
Iran has promised to send medical aid to provide necessary treatment to the injured.
AFP this photo mix, showing what the port looked like in 2017 and the aftermath of the explosion, with a ruined shipment still on fire.
Beirut’s governor Maruan Abboud said between 200,000 and 250,000 more people were left homeless by the explosion. “We are running to give them food, water and shelter,” Abboud said.
The Red Cross have set up temporary shelters in Beirut for 1,000 families, offering food, hygiene kits and basic needs to house the families for 72 hours.
The closest layout to the most sensitive of the photo is the remains of a grain silo, which provided wheat to the city. Wheat-based flatbread is a staple in Beirut and locating enough wheat in the coming days will be the main detail of this urgency for the government.
The Red Cross said at least a hundred other people were killed by the explosion and 4,000 were injured. Lebanon’s fitness minister also said many other people would be reported missing, raising fears of an increase in the death toll.
Four of Beirut’s hospitals were damaged in the blast and are currently out of service, with the remaining hospitals swamped by casualties.
Lebanon’s ministry of fitness said it is running in a plan to create six to eight cash hospitals, with Qatar, Iran, Oman and Jordan donating equipment.
Despite the initial hypothesis that a bomb was the massive explosion at the port of Beirut, Lebanese President Michel Aoun showed that it was caused by the explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, which had been unhealthily stored in the port.
According to the president, he had been there for six years and swore the culprits would suffer serious consequences.
Ammonium nitrate is basically used as a fertilizer (releases the nitrogen that plants need, especially for growth) but also as a component of explosive mixtures for mines and quarries, as it is a resistant oxidizer that releases oxygen directly into a chemical reaction, making it more resistant. . It may also, as appears to have happened in Beirut, explode violently on its own in the event of an explosion, in this case through a fire.
Widely shared on social media, it was the moment of the explosion, which caused a cloud of fungi and a great surprise wave, which caused primary damage in Beirut and may be heard only in Cyprus, 150 miles away.
The explosion caused seismic waves equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude 3.3, experts noted that because the explosion occurred on the ground, maximum power is released in the sky and buildings; if the explosion had occurred underground, the magnitude would have been much larger.
Hello and welcome to our policy of the consequences of yesterday’s great explosion at the port of Beirut. The city was devastated by the big explosion at 6:07 p.m. local time that killed at least a hundred other people and injured more than 4,000.
The explosion destroyed buildings and near the port, overturned vehicles, broke windows in the village and destroyed buildings up to 10 kilometres away.
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