Large Explosion in Beirut

Zaph

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

Trump said it was an attack, a bomb of some kind ?

Do the people of Beirut not have enough crap to be contending with tonight without that buffoon weighing in with his uninformed speculation? Seriously he hasn't an ounce of common sense in him. As president just offer your condolences to the Lebanese people for this awful tragedy and keep your mouth shut until a clearer picture emerges.

screamer

I’ve read it was sparks from some welding being done that started off the whole thing.....

Idbatterim

Watch this one! Potentially even more ridiculous explosion!!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvtuggAkvoE

prinzeugen

shaveAbullock wrote: »

I believe that was just a minor blast before the large one so that would explain it.

Anyone that close would not survive. Unless that was a livestream, I doubt its genuine. I recall a similar video from a fireworks factory in Belgium or the Netherlands from about 15 years ago.

shaveAbullock

prinzeugen wrote: »

Anyone that close would not survive. Unless that was a livestream, I doubt its genuine. I recall a similar video from a fireworks factory in Belgium or the Netherlands from about 15 years ago.

It might not be genuine but why would a much smaller explosion before the big one destroy everything in the vicinity?

BorneTobyWilde

Effects wrote: »

What the fück would he know?

Said all his generals and experts told him so. '' and they would know'' he said

ChikiChiki

Zaph wrote: »

Do the people of Beirut not have enough crap to be contending with tonight without that buffoon weighing in with his uninformed speculation? Seriously he hasn't an ounce of common sense in him. As president just offer your condolences to the Lebanese people for this awful tragedy and keep your mouth shut until a clearer picture emerges.

Yep, he has the diplomacy of a brick.

bb1234567

Lot of people saying never seen anything like it before but actually a very similar incident occurred in Tianjin a few years ago. Absolutely enormous explosion of fireworks cargo in the port killed hundreds nearby in the city. With these two disasters there's really no excuse for placing fireworks or munitions stores anywhere close to populated urban areas anymore.

shaveAbullock

bb1234567 wrote: »

With these two disasters there's really no excuse for placing fireworks or munitions stores anywhere close to populated urban areas anymore.

I can think of many monetary reasons which drives most decisions.

prinzeugen

shaveAbullock wrote: »

fertiliser.....
Hmm perhaps Israel somehow recruited some old school provos, it's the last thing anyone would expect.

Read a few posts back.. It's fertiliser. It's common knowledge that it's been stored there since 2014.

There is no conspiracy or magic black objects flying around.

shaveAbullock

prinzeugen wrote: »

Read a few posts back.. It's fertiliser. It's common knowledge that it's been stored there since 2014.

There is no conspiracy or magic black objects flying around.

So what you're saying is the the provos were not involved?

Bobblehats

bb1234567 wrote: »

Lot of people saying never seen anything like it before but actually a very similar incident occurred in Tianjin a few years. Absolutely enormous explosion of fireworks cargo in the port killed hundreds nearby in the city. With these two disasters there's really no excuse for placing fireworks or munitions stores anywhere close to populated urban areas anymore.

Is there as good a capture, and from multiple angles? Big sonic boom, clear as day buildings being lifted from their very foundations?

cnocbui

The DM is saying that 2,700 tonnes of Ammonium nitrate would have blast yield equivalent of 3 kilotons of TNT - a fifth of the yield of the nuke dropped on Hiroshima.

prinzeugen

shaveAbullock wrote: »

It might not be genuine but why would a much smaller explosion before the big one destroy everything in the vicinity?

Watch Blitz Street on YouTube. It's an old series from Channel 4. Even a small explosion can do major damage.

It would be almost impossible to survive the main explosion that close without dying of blast lung.

shaveAbullock

prinzeugen wrote: »

Watch Blitz Street on YouTube. It's an old series from Channel 4. Even a small explosion can do major damage.

It would be almost impossible to survive the main explosion that close without dying of blast lung.

Of course and that's why Russia Today clearly labelled it as before the big one. The video ends before the big one.
The smaller explosion could have taken out the camera but it didn't.

ACitizenErased

I'd say the death toll is in the 1000s

bb1234567

Bobblehats wrote: »

Is there as good a capture, and from multiple angles? Big sonic boom, clear as day buildings being lifted from their very foundations?

It happened at nightttime in Tianjin, not as much footage because of censorship. But it looked like a nuclear bomb, I'm surprised it got so little international coverage compared to this one in Beirut.

cnocbui

This is very similar to the 1,600 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate blast disaster at Texas City, Galveston Texas in 1947, where fertiliser on a ship exploded and the blast was heard 150 miles away, several thousand were injured and 568 people were killed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster.

So this was 68% more fertiliser than was involved in that disaster.

shaveAbullock

bb1234567 wrote: »

It happened at nightttime in Tianjin, not as much footage because of censorship. But it looked like a nuclear bomb, I'm surprised it got so little international coverage compared to this one in Beirut.

Maybe the news agencies jumped on this one suspecting a potential war or terrorist incident?

4068ac1elhodqr

cnocbui wrote: »

The DM is saying that 2,700 tonnes of Ammonium nitrate would have blast yield equivalent of 3 kilotons of TNT - a fifth of the yield of the nuke dropped on Hiroshima.

2,750/3kt is a while lot, one of the tabloids reported that there is an old WW2 ship stuck/sunk in the Thames with 1kt in it (1/3rd of this), the SS Richard Montgomery.

But their claims of something like a 100+ foot tsunami rushing up the Thames from it, might be greatly exaggerated (it was the Express after all).

shaveAbullock

cnocbui wrote: »

The DM is saying that 2,700 tonnes of Ammonium nitrate would have blast yield equivalent of 3 kilotons of TNT - a fifth of the yield of the nuke dropped on Hiroshima.

In yield yes but Hiroshima was an air blast maximising the damage to the surrounding area so the damage would be no where near 1/5 of Hiroshima.

prinzeugen

Hassan Massive Vigilante wrote: »

2,750/3kt is a while lot, one of the tabloids reported that there is an old WW2 ship stuck/sunk in the Thames with 1kt in it (1/3rd of this), the SS Richard Montgomery.

But their claims of something like a 100+ foot tsunami rushing up the Thames from it, might be greatly exaggerated (it was the Express after all).

Its not an exaggeration. Look up the SS Kielce. They tried to deal with a similar ship. Didn't end well.



"In 1967 the Folkstone Salvage Company tried to remove explosives from the wreck when the explosives were set off. Windows were broken in Folkstone and slates dislodged, but there were no casualties. The explosion registered 4.5 on the Richter Scale"

vicwatson

wandererz wrote: »

Something small seems to fly in just before the explosion.

A bird

Wesser

Big cloud like a mushroom coming out. ? Atomic?

shaveAbullock

Wesser wrote: »

Big cloud like a mushroom coming out. ? Atomic?

You know as well as I do that an explosion does not have to be atomic to form a mushroom could.

BorneTobyWilde

Hope these guys are okay. I follow them on youtube, it's an interesting insight into people there and the City. Like how almost everyone speaks French due to France occupying it after WW1


They are pretty funny and creative group

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fntqh3LvT40

Scuid Mhór

ACitizenErased wrote: »

I'd say the death toll is in the 1000s

Yeah, this is probably the most immediate carnage I've witnessed in my life time. The death toll will be conservative for a while -- like 9/11, there'll be people missing. They won't find remains for everyone. It looked like tons of apartment blocks got entirely incinerated in the second blast; that could easily be hundreds, thousands dead, among those wounded as well.

It's horrific, just horrific. Destruction on this magnitude is just beyond the scale of my comprehension.

Scuid Mhór

cnocbui wrote: »

The DM is saying that 2,700 tonnes of Ammonium nitrate would have blast yield equivalent of 3 kilotons of TNT - a fifth of the yield of the nuke dropped on Hiroshima.

The calculations I've seen going round are estimating it to being 1/15th the blast of Hiroshima. Also, you have to remedy that a lot of the devastation from Hiroshima is based on the fact that it was a nuclear blast and radiation did serious damage as well. Ammonium nitrate of a comparable amount wouldn't deliver such carnage. So the contrasts are sort of unfounded.

Larbre34

A 3 kiloton conventional explosion eh?

Beirut became a by-word for conflict and ruination in my youth because of its dreadful 15 year civil war and I remember seeing bombed out buildings on the news from there all the time. I daresay this event exceeds the total amount of explosives used in that entire conflict by a distance and all of a sudden that great City which spent the last 30 years picking itself up is destroyed again in one hellish moment. A terrible thing.

Jeff2

Wesser wrote: »

Big cloud like a mushroom coming out. ? Atomic?

That's some stretch and imagination.