OT: Beirut Explosion

[ThomasM]

Apparently 9 tones of Nitrates have been stored there for 9 years..

A well known powder keg. Nothing to see here, move along.

 

[Suhrthing]

Think they were involved in this? Honest question. Sure makes me wonder.

Probably just an accident, due to storing highly-explosive bomb-making materials there. But I would not surprise me to learn it was.

 

[CFLCane]

I'm no munitions expert, but I read there were homes damaged up to 10km (6 miles) away from the blast. Insane.

Thought I was watching a movie when I saw it at first. The buildings being thrusted into the air when the shock wave hit was nuts.

Dude this is CIS. Of course someone here will pretend to be a munitions expert.

 

[ThomasM]

Probably just an accident, due to storing highly-explosive bomb-making materials there. But I would not surprise me to learn it was.

Why the **** store that much destruction potential at such an important port? That is just crazy. Could very well have been an accident, but why store that stuff where it can do so much damage if an accident happens?

 

[ThomasM]

Dude this is CIS. Of course someone here will pretend to be a munitions expert.

I did watch a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

 

[5ringshowboutu]

Dude this is CIS. Of course someone here will pretend to be a munitions expert.

Sleeper cell munitions experts?!

 

[clg003]

A little to close...

 

[clg003]

Evidently fireworks factory explosions are pretty massive.

 

[ddann]

Fireworks factory explosion? So...this isn’t gonna be the event that touches off World War 3?

 

[5ringshowboutu]

A little to close...

Nuts! It looks like he hit water at the end.

 

[Tad Footeball]

Dude this is CIS. Of course someone here will pretend to be a munitions expert.

To be fair, I've never met an epidemiologist that isn't suuuuuuuper into munitions too.

 

[ThomasM]

Confiscated munitions, not fireworks. Now, there may have been some confiscated fireworks there... What exploded was not just fireworks, though.

 

[duke4heisman]

Economically devastating for Lebanon. That port, a massive economic driver for them, is completely destroyed.

****....Jenan can get it!

 

[Home Slice]

Supposedly a fireworks depot.

Someone over there thought it was fertilizer that had just been unloaded from a ship. I'm not sure. That may be inaccurate.

 

[ThomasM]

****....Jenan can get it!

In my humble opinion, some of the most beautiful women in the world come from there.

 

[Home Slice]

There are always explosions there.

Back in '06 I left southern Lebanon a day or two before it and Israel exchanged some "fireworks".

Enjoyed my time there, but the timing was right to move on.

I'm sure many of the people over there probably thought this was Israel today.

 

[Home Slice]

Think they were involved in this? Honest question. Sure makes me wonder.

For what it's worth, Israel is denying any involvement.

 

[Go Canes!!]

Wow:

 

[Deleted member 26015]

The Netherlands had a massive fireworks explosion in Enschede in 2000. It killed 20 people, made 1500 people homeless and damaged houses within a 1.5 km radius. The explosion is on YouTube, you can good look it up for yourself, I wont post it here since its graphic.

The explosion was so massive that seismic activity was measured in southern Germany, which was about 600 km away from the explosion.

You add heat, aluminium and ammonium nitrate and you have a bomb that is able to wipe out a lot of ground. Ammonium nitrate is used for fireworks, which would explain why its stored there. Its also used as a component for explosives.

 

[Old Gregg]

And this is what a chemical plant explosion looks like...