Massive explosion in Beiruit today

[Beiruty]

A response to a friend, I wrote on my FB page:

Yes, there was enormous amount of Ammonium Nitride, by state official 2750 tons of that mine explosive material.
The story so far, In 2014, a ship was intercepted (by who, who knows). The haul, a 2750 of high grade mining explosive were unload to warehouse 12 (why and who did what and what not?). 6 years later on August 4,2020 a fire started in warehouse 12, and rest is what you see on the net.
Another fact from the video, there was explosion of small arms ammunition in the warehouse 12 before the big explosion.
Speculation so far until proven by evidence: One or more airstrike targeted warehouse 12.
Note: A Lebanese official Army statement stated, all its military shipments are never ever stored in Beirut Seaport, but would be moved immediately to it designated storage houses elsewhere.
The rumor: Warehouse 12 is under the control of Hizbullah

[Beiruty]

Alleged photo of the explosives in warehouse 12. Each "bag" is 1-ton.
Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-new ... s-22477024

[Chaparral]

All I can say is if it was ammonium nitrate something had to initiate the explosion.

What I’m saying is that I don’t believe it was just plain ammonium nitrate. If it was what initiated it? Just fire alone shouldn’t.

Didn’t a simple structure fire ignite the ammonium nitrate explosion in West, Tx, in 2013?

[jason812]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.co ... index.html

As Lebanon's investigation into the devastating blast in Beirut continues, officials have pointed to a possible cause: A massive shipment of agricultural fertilizer that authorities say was stored in the port of Beirut without safety precautions for years -- despite warnings by local officials.

Documents newly reviewed by CNN reveal that a shipment of 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut on a Russian-owned vessel in 2013. The ship, named the MV Rhosus, was destined for Mozambique -- but stopped in Beirut due to financial difficulties that also created unrest with the ship's Russian and Ukrainian crew.

Once it arrived, the ship never left Beirut's port, according Lebanon's Director of Customs, Badri Daher, despite repeated warnings by him and others that the cargo was the equivalent of "a floating bomb."

Due to the extreme danger posed by this stored items in unsuitable climate conditions, we reiterate our request to the Port Authorities to re-export the goods immediately to maintain the safety of the port and those working in it," Daher's predecessor, Chafic Merhi, wrote in a 2016 letter addressed to a judge involved in the case.

Lebanese authorities have not named the MV Rhosus as the source of the substance that ultimately exploded in Beirut on Tuesday, but Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the devastating blast was caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. He added that the substance had been stored for six years at the port warehouse without safety measures, "endangering the safety of citizens."

Lebanon's general security chief also said a "highly explosive material" had been confiscated years earlier and stored in the warehouse, which is just a few minutes' walk from Beirut's shopping and nightlife districts. Tuesday's massive explosion, which rocked the capital, left at least 135 dead and 5,000 injured.

On Wednesday, Lebanese Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad Najd said there are papers and documents dating back to 2014 proving the existence of an exchange of information about the "material" confiscated by Lebanese authorities. She told Jordan's state-owned channel Al Mamlaka that the exchange is being considered in relation to the potential cause of the deadly Beirut blast.

In 2013, the MV Rhosus set off from Batumi, Georgia, destined for Mozambique, according to the vessel's path and the account of its captain Boris Prokoshev.

It was carrying 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, an industrial chemical commonly used around the world as a fertilizer -- and in explosives for mining.

The Moldovan-flagged ship stopped in Greece to refuel. That's when the ship's owner told the Russian and Ukrainian sailors that he had run out of money and they would have to pick up additional cargo to cover the travel costs -- which led them on a detour to Beirut.

The vessel was owned by a company called Teto Shipping which members of the crew said was owned by Igor Grechushkin, a Khabarovsk businessman who resided in Cyprus.

Once in Beirut, the MV Rhosus was detained by local port authorities due to "gross violations in operating a vessel," unpaid fees to the port, and complaints filed by the Russian and Ukrainian crew , according to the Seafarers' Union of Russia (affiliated with the International Transport Workers' Federation, or ITF), which represented the Russian sailors, told CNN.

It never resumed its journey.

According to emails exchanged by Prokoshev and a Beirut-based lawyer Charbel Dagher, who represented the crew in Lebanon, the ammonium nitrate was unloaded in Beirut's port by November 2014 and stored in a hangar.

It was then kept in that hangar for six years, despite repeated warnings from the Director of Lebanese Customs, Badri Daher, of the "extreme danger" that the cargo posed.

But public court documents CNN obtained through the prominent Lebanese human rights activist, Wadih Al-Asmar, reveal that Daher and his predecessor, Merhi, turned to Beirut's courts to help dispose of the dangerous goods multiple times from 2014 onwards.

It would appear there was vast incompetence with what to do with the cargo. This incompetence could have unintentionally allowed nefarious actors to use the ammonium nitrate as a bomb. Or it could have just been a very bad accident.

[Paladin]

All I can say is if it was ammonium nitrate something had to initiate the explosion.

What I’m saying is that I don’t believe it was just plain ammonium nitrate. If it was what initiated it? Just fire alone shouldn’t.

Didn’t a simple structure fire ignite the ammonium nitrate explosion in West, Tx, in 2013?

Town in shock over news that Texas fertilizer-plant explosion was deliberate

[Paladin]

A response to a friend, I wrote on my FB page:

Yes, there was enormous amount of Ammonium Nitride, by state official 2750 tons of that mine explosive material.
The story so far, In 2014, a ship was intercepted (by who, who knows). The haul, a 2750 of high grade mining explosive were unload to warehouse 12 (why and who did what and what not?). 6 years later on August 4,2020 a fire started in warehouse 12, and rest is what you see on the net.
Another fact from the video, there was explosion of small arms ammunition in the warehouse 12 before the big explosion.
Speculation so far until proven by evidence: One or more airstrike targeted warehouse 12.
Note: A Lebanese official Army statement stated, all its military shipments are never ever stored in Beirut Seaport, but would be moved immediately to it designated storage houses elsewhere.
The rumor: Warehouse 12 is under the control of Hizbullah

What I've read agrees with that:

Al-Hadeth News Says MASSIVE Beirut Explosion Was Warehouse for Hezbollah

Hezbollah’s history of storing weapons in people’s homes and inside densely populated cities is well-documented by the United Nations, the Israeli military and Western news outlets, as well as international human rights groups.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, most homes in Shiite towns along the Lebanese border contain some kind of weapons cache, for guns, rockets or other materiel.

A satellite image released by the Israel Defense Forces showing three sites near Beirut’s international airport that the army says are being used by Hezbollah to convert regular missiles into precision-guided munitions, on September 27, 2018. (Israel Defense Forces)

In 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also revealed the locations of sites inside Beirut that he said Hezbollah was using to manufacture and store precision-guided missiles, including one next to Beirut’s Rafik Hariri airport.

By hiding its arsenals among civilians, the terror group likely hopes to use those people as human shields to prevent Israel from conducting strikes against them out of concerns for collateral damage.

-Times of Israel

Netanyahu warns Hezbollah amid high tensions along northern border

Last week, Israel also said it thwarted an infiltration attempt from Lebanon by Hezbollah operatives, setting off one of the heaviest exchanges of fire along the volatile Israel-Lebanon frontier since a 2006 war between the bitter enemies.

"We will do what is necessary in order to defend ourselves. I suggest to all of them, including Hezbollah, to consider this,” [Netanyahu] said.

Netanyahu added: “These are not vain words; they have the weight of the State of Israel and the IDF behind them and this should be taken seriously.”

[Boxerrider]

West, Texas was a very different situation. That was an operating fertilizer plant, not long-term storage, and I don't know that their investigation ever got any further than, "We're headed in the right direction."

[The Annoyed Man]

Here I was, thinking in terms of US tons. Turns out, it was 2750 METRIC tons of explosives, which is 3031.356 US tons....or 6,062,712 pounds. A small factoid, but interesting to me. What’s a other 281.356 tons, give or take? To put things into perspective, the Oklahoma City bombing used 7000 lbs of explosives....or 35 US tons. Thus, the difference in measurement between metric tons and US tons in Beirut was 8 times larger than then ENTIRE Oklahoma City bomb.

Another way of looking at it: A 2000-lb bunker buster bomb (BLU-109, actually weighing 1,927 lbs) contains 530 lbs of high explosives....or .240404 metric tons of explosive. I'm no kind of explosives expert at all, but if my math is right, then Beirut explosion was roughly the equivalent of 11,439 2000-lb bunker busters going off, minus the shrapnel.

[C-dub]

Isn't 7,000 pounds 3.5 tons?

[jason812]

Here I was, thinking in terms of US tons. Turns out, it was 2750 METRIC tons of explosives, which is 3031.356 US tons....or 6,062,712 pounds. A small factoid, but interesting to me. What’s a other 281.356 tons, give or take? To put things into perspective, the Oklahoma City bombing used 7000 lbs of explosives....or 35 US tons. Thus, the difference in measurement between metric tons and US tons in Beirut was 8 times larger than then ENTIRE Oklahoma City bomb.

Another way of looking at it: A 2000-lb bunker buster bomb (BLU-109, actually weighing 1,927 lbs) contains 530 lbs of high explosives....or .240404 metric tons of explosive. I'm no kind of explosives expert at all, but if my math is right, then Beirut explosion was roughly the equivalent of 11,439 2000-lb bunker busters going off, minus the shrapnel.

7,000 lbs is 3.5 tons, not 35 tons. I hate doing math and trying to type at the same time. Seems like I always make a mistake.

The West explosion was 270 tons. This was over 10 times larger than that.

[Beiruty]

It was 15% of Hiroshima nuke, approximately 2.5 Kilo Tons.
It is the largest non-nuclear bomb ever.

[parabelum]

Prayers for the families of those who died, and for those displaced. Terrible.

[DevilDawg]

It’s a bad situation and our thoughts are of course for the Lebanese people effected. That said, knowing dock workers, and how pitiful OSHA type organizations are here in the States, I doubt it is going to be much more than a sad chain of events that caused this to happen. Some poor schmuck was likely doing work in a bad conditions with little to no formal training and zero safety training. This coupled with what is apparently criminal negligence in storing so many Haz-Mat in the same area which could fuel the triangle for an explosion.

Don’t see a need to chase bogey men down a rabbit hole.