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Beirut blast: Explosion rocks city with many injured

jmotivator

jmotivator

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Beirut blast: Hundreds injured in explosion - Red Cross - BBC News

"It is not yet clear what caused the explosion in the city's port region. Video posted online showed a large mushroom cloud and destroyed buildings.

Hospitals are said to be overwhelmed by casualties.

The internal security chief said it happened in an area housing highly explosive materials.

The explosion comes at a sensitive time for Lebanon with an economic crisis reigniting old divisions. Tensions are also high ahead of Friday's verdict in a trial over the killing of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005."

Here is video of the explosion:



Expert opinion circling now is that video evidence would tend to confirm, from the nature of the smoke and the explosion, that it was fireworks-grade demolitions.

Here is another vantage point.
 
People say there was a fireworks warehouse, but you know what those flashes look like to me (given the pattern)? Fuel valves blowing out from boiling gasoline. The explosion itself looks like a fuel-air bomb.

So, PERHAPS:

1. Fuel facility burns.
2. Gasoline boils in the pipes, rupturing the valves.
3. An expanding cloud of fuel vapor crosses the flames from the original fire,
4. Boom.


What rotten luck. Lebanon seems to be a doomed nation. They can't catch a break for anything.
 
IDK what was in the building. There used to be a fireworks factory maybe 25 miles from us. It was designed with 30 small steel reinforced buildings with dirt berms between them scattered over about as many acres with unattached roofs to direct any blasts in any building up. I only knew about it because someone told me it cost a king's ransom to demo all those buildings when the land was eventually sold. They didn't make regular fireworks though. They did the ones you see on the massive fireworks shows and had a separate building for each type of pyro they made.
 
Rexedgar said:
What are “fireworks-grade demolitions?”


Israel is out early, “wasn’t us!”

Israel Refutes Claims Of Involvement In Major Explosion At Beirut Port - UrduPoint
Click to expand...

Fireworks grade explosives are slow and bright burning, meant to be visually pleasing rather than efficiently destructive. In large enough concentrations they can be devastating, clearly, but it requires far more tonnage than you can effectively transport by plane or missile.

Also, I am hearing that this fireworks facility might have been placed very near a flour mill/grain silo... which, if true, would be galloping insanity.
 
jmotivator said:
Fireworks grade explosives are slow and bright burning, meant to be visually pleasing rather than efficiently destructive. In large enough concentrations they can be devastating, clearly, but it requires far more tonnage than you can effectively transport by plane or missile.

Also, I am hearing that this fireworks facility might have been placed very near a flour mill/grain silo... which, if true, would be galloping insanity.
Click to expand...


Ok, in the OP the other phrase was used.......
 



Every once and a while a fireworks factory explodes somewhere in the world. This one was in China.


Hope everyone injured recovers well.
 
jmotivator said:
Fireworks grade explosives are slow and bright burning, meant to be visually pleasing rather than efficiently destructive. In large enough concentrations they can be devastating, clearly, but it requires far more tonnage than you can effectively transport by plane or missile.

Also, I am hearing that this fireworks facility might have been placed very near a flour mill/grain silo... which, if true, would be galloping insanity.
Click to expand...

That white building to the immediate left is a row of grain elevators.
 
Luce said:
People say there was a fireworks warehouse, but you know what those flashes look like to me (given the pattern)? Fuel valves blowing out from boiling gasoline. The explosion itself looks like a fuel-air bomb.

So, PERHAPS:

1. Fuel facility burns.
2. Gasoline boils in the pipes, rupturing the valves.
3. An expanding cloud of fuel vapor crosses the flames from the original fire,
4. Boom.


What rotten luck. Lebanon seems to be a doomed nation. They can't catch a break for anything.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the second view I posted clearly shows the fireworks popping off in the wake of the first explosion.

It wouldn't likely be gasoline in the second explosion. For one, given the short span of time from the first explosion there wouldn't be enough time to boil a volume of gasoline big enough to cause that explosion. It's possible that, if there was a gasoline tank in the vicinity, that a larger firework could have cracked the tank in a chain reaction, but those tanks tend to be rather sturdily built.

A grain/flour silo could also do it, if large caches of explosives dispersed the contents.
 
BlueTex said:
That white building to the immediate left is a row of grain elevators.
Click to expand...

Holy crap, you're right. Who puts a fireworks storage facility next to a grain processing plant? :shock:
 
jmotivator said:
Beirut blast: Hundreds injured in explosion - Red Cross - BBC News

"It is not yet clear what caused the explosion in the city's port region. Video posted online showed a large mushroom cloud and destroyed buildings.

Hospitals are said to be overwhelmed by casualties.

The internal security chief said it happened in an area housing highly explosive materials.

The explosion comes at a sensitive time for Lebanon with an economic crisis reigniting old divisions. Tensions are also high ahead of Friday's verdict in a trial over the killing of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005."

Here is video of the explosion:



Expert opinion circling now is that video evidence would tend to confirm, from the nature of the smoke and the explosion, that it was fireworks-grade demolitions.

Here is another vantage point.
Click to expand...


:(

I hope that the casualty count is low.
 
Luce said:
People say there was a fireworks warehouse, but you know what those flashes look like to me (given the pattern)? Fuel valves blowing out from boiling gasoline. The explosion itself looks like a fuel-air bomb.

So, PERHAPS:

1. Fuel facility burns.
2. Gasoline boils in the pipes, rupturing the valves.
3. An expanding cloud of fuel vapor crosses the flames from the original fire,
4. Boom.


What rotten luck. Lebanon seems to be a doomed nation. They can't catch a break for anything.
Click to expand...

The BBC link has

Some reports suggest the explosion may have been an accident. Lebanon's National News Agency reported a fire breaking out at what it called an explosives depot at the port before the explosion.
Click to expand...

I for one will reserve judgement. I know that it could have been sabotage too. I hope it is merely an accident, and it is not used as an excuse for further hostilities.
 
Whoa, my wife and I heard the news about the explosion this morning but when we saw the video, the response from both of us (just now) was: Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!
Damn, you have to know that a lot of families will be in mourning tonight. :( :(
 
swing_voter said:



Every once and a while a fireworks factory explodes somewhere in the world. This one was in China.


Hope everyone injured recovers well.
Click to expand...


Right, and that explosion in the Chinese video is very similar to the FIRST explosion in the Beruit video, but orders of magnitude smaller than the second explosion.

I seem to remember something similar (two part explosion), but still smaller, that happened in the South West, I want to say Waco, TX... but I'm not finding the story.
 
RAMOSS said:
The BBC link has



I for one will reserve judgement. I know that it could have been sabotage too. I hope it is merely an accident, and it is not used as an excuse for further hostilities.
Click to expand...

Just saying, that fire before the explosion looks a lot like BLEVE valves operating.

Edit to clarify: This looks like an accident to me.
 
jmotivator said:
Yeah, the second view I posted clearly shows the fireworks popping off in the wake of the first explosion.
Click to expand...

Could also be gas transfer valves failing, the explosion immediately followed them.

It wouldn't likely be gasoline in the second explosion. For one, given the short span of time from the first explosion there wouldn't be enough time to boil a volume of gasoline big enough to cause that explosion.
Click to expand...

You are probably correct, unless the gasoline was in piping and therefore had more surface area.
 
jmotivator said:
Right, and that explosion in the Chinese video is very similar to the FIRST explosion in the Beruit video, but orders of magnitude smaller than the second explosion.

I seem to remember something similar (two part explosion), but still smaller, that happened in the South West, I want to say Waco, TX... but I'm not finding the story.
Click to expand...

The town of West, Texas.
 
Sad, there was a time that Lebanon was choice place for resorts and nice beaches, to know what it once was and what has happened there is just sad, and now this.
 
So was the Halifax disaster in 1917.
 
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