
Large explosion in Beirut - bharatsb
https://twitter.com/borzou/status/1290675854767513600
======
kcmastrpc
Unconfirmed reports that a fireworks depot fire caused a secondary benzene
explosion. src:
[https://twitter.com/mattparlmer/status/1290679715892690945](https://twitter.com/mattparlmer/status/1290679715892690945)

~~~
macintux
I’ve also seen reports of grain silos in the area being destroyed; grain is an
astonishingly powerful explosive.

~~~
throwaway0a5e
Grain is a pretty poor explosive because the upper and lower explosive limits
are so close (yes I know that's not traditionally a metric we use for solids),
it needs an oxidier and the volume of byproduct for volume of input is
relatively low.

But large amounts of grain and oxygen are often found together in confined
spaces so that makes it more explosive in practice than most things that
people who work in offices and don't deal in bulk goods come into contact
with.

~~~
throwaway_pdp09
Can you elaborate what "upper and lower explosive limits" are, please.

Also I don't understnd how it could be explosive at all, sudden oxidation of
large (that is, low surface area to volume), non-dry particles seems unlikely.
Flour etc. may be another matter, but a blast like this... flour?

~~~
TimSchumann
Most grain elevators have incredibly large quantities of dust (basically
flour) lying around, it's just unavoidable when you're moving that much grain
around.

If it's too dry, there's a risk of static/friction/electrical ignition.

If it gets wet, you can have anaerobic bacteria build up heat in a compartment
that, when exposed to oxygen, ignites.

Grew up on a farm, have a fair bit of experience messing around with grain
bins. Our local elevator had a fire due to the former condition, and our
neighbor's barn burned down due to the latter.

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interestica
Another angle of the explosion -
[https://twitter.com/FadyRoumieh/status/1290672517733064705](https://twitter.com/FadyRoumieh/status/1290672517733064705)

~~~
interestica
A user has compiled this synced compound video:

[https://twitter.com/AnalysisTwd/status/1290698045802373122](https://twitter.com/AnalysisTwd/status/1290698045802373122)

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bdz
Another angle with huge mushroom cloud
[https://twitter.com/ConflictsW/status/1290669902035132418](https://twitter.com/ConflictsW/status/1290669902035132418)

~~~
evan_
worth reminding everyone that mushroom clouds occur with large conventional
explosions, not only nuclear explosions:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_cloud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_cloud)

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shock
Anyone know why this has been flagged?

~~~
interestica
This seems ideal as an HN post to me - generating fruitful discussion and
bringing in various viewpoints and areas of expertise. And the fact that it's
a current event means that people have a bit of leeway in speculation: we all
have the same limited source of information (on the ground video).

~~~
nouveaux
I agree. This has components of science and policy. There are people in the
community who can contribute valuable insight.

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_Microft
Looks like this [0] is the place, judging by the angle from video [1] (take
the building with the red cupola south of there and the building in the harbor
as reference).

[0]
[https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=e851aed9-b5df-495a-89e8-5c53d...](https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=e851aed9-b5df-495a-89e8-5c53df3828fe&cp=33.902165~35.514249&lvl=16&style=a&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027)

[1]
[https://twitter.com/JeonggukJeon__/status/129068971722728243...](https://twitter.com/JeonggukJeon__/status/1290689717227282434)

~~~
r721
Yeah, Nick Waters from Bellingcat thinks the same:

[https://twitter.com/N_Waters89/status/1290681231693275136](https://twitter.com/N_Waters89/status/1290681231693275136)

See also this tweet:

[https://twitter.com/N_Waters89/status/1290688278094647298](https://twitter.com/N_Waters89/status/1290688278094647298)

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h2odragon
Looks like a fuel air explosion to me; perhaps the fireworks factory popped a
large LNG tank, which flowed out until it hit an ignitable diffusion; which
then blew the rest of the tank farm open and caused the next front.

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albertkawmi
Does anyone know what kind of explosion this might be?

~~~
seibelj
One article I read said it was near a place where fireworks were stored. But
who knows for sure yet.

~~~
atestu
This video shows fireworks, then a second explosion
[https://twitter.com/SVNewsAlerts/status/1290674216623366144](https://twitter.com/SVNewsAlerts/status/1290674216623366144)

~~~
ISL
Oh, wow. I hope the videographer didn't sustain major injury. What a
spectacular human disaster.

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wintorez
What was that red material?

~~~
detritus
This is what I've been trying to work out, but am having problems Googling for
suggestions. The only things I've in the past read as causing red smoke are
highly carcinogenic/toxic hypergolic rocket fuels (hydrazine?), but I'm having
a hard time imagining anyone storing a cache of that sort of thing anywhere
near a built-up area.

The form of the explosion here points in my mind to something significantly
more explosive than fireworks (fireworks result in white smoke too, no?) - if
nitrates are involved, that might certainly point in a better direction.

~~~
wiml
I've read a number of reports saying that there was a large amount of sodium
nitrate stored at the port (some sources say ammonium nitrate).

~~~
detritus
Just read this too, and it's looking like it's just under three times what
Timothy McVeigh unleashed in Oklahoma City.

This kind of unnerves me a little.

Seemingly, a couple of tons of this not-entirely-impossible-to-get-ahold-of-
chemical could seriously screw up national infrastructure.

We've had decades of fairly organised terrorism here in the UK, so perhaps I
should know better, but it's a bit of a shock to realise that a 'manageable'
quantity of otherwise fairly standard chemical stock is capable of producing
something as dramatic as this.

~~~
wintorez
Isn't the sale of nitrates highly regulated in most countries?

~~~
detritus
Most, yes, but then I'm unsure how complex it'd be for a well off and invested
actor to play a 'shell game' with a few containers and get one of them filled
with nasties into a major metropolis after a circuitous route.

The nitrates in question here apparently ended up in Lebanon after coming from
Brazil via Mozambique.

