Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.

[a425couple]

Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.

(Jerk ass CNN - fills the top of the page with another
of their bias filled TDS headlines.
How can those assholes waste so many words, and
not mention what others can??

"Authorities said they had not determined a cause for the blast.
Abbas Ibrahim, chief of Lebanese General Security, said it might
have been caused by highly explosive material that was confiscated
from a ship some time ago and stored at the port. Local television
channel LBC said the material was sodium nitrate.")

Why did Lebanon sieze this shipload of sodium nitrate?
Why did they keep it in a downtown warehouse next to fireworks?


from
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/04/middleeast/beirut-explosion-port-intl/index.html

Huge explosion rocks Beirut, injuring thousands across Lebanese capital
By Ghazi Balkiz, Tamara Qiblawi and Ben Wedeman, CNN

Updated 4:53 PM ET, Tue August 4, 2020
Beirut explosion kills dozens, injures thousands

Beirut explosion kills dozens, injures thousands 01:21
Beirut, Lebanon (CNN)A massive explosion ripped through central Beirut
on Tuesday, injuring thousands of people and blowing out windows in
buildings across the city.

The blast near the port in the Lebanese capital sent up a huge mushroom
cloud-shaped shockwave, flipping cars and damaging distant buildings. It
was felt as far as Cyprus, hundreds of miles away.
At least 50 people were killed in the blast -- with many more feared
dead -- and at least 2,750 people have been wounded, Health Minister
Hamad Hassan told reporters.

There were conflicting reports on what caused the explosion, which was
initially blamed on a major fire at a warehouse for firecrackers near
the port, according to NNA. The director of the general security
directorate later said the blast was caused by "high explosive materials
confiscated years ago," but did not provide further details.

An investigation into the explosion was announced by Lebanese Prime
Minister Hassan Diab. The probe will include "revelations that will be
announced about this dangerous warehouse which has been present since
2014," he said, without providing any additional details.
The lethal blast "will not pass without accountability," he said in a
televised statement, adding that "those responsible will pay for what
happened."
A red cloud hung over the city in the wake of the explosion as
firefighting teams rushed to the scene to try to put out the fire.
Footage from the scene captured the injured staggering through streets
in the capital; and ambulances, cars and military vehicles packed with
the wounded. One eyewitness described the scenes as "like an apocalypse."
At least 10 firefighters are missing, according to the city's governor
Marwan Abboud, who said the scene reminded him of "Hiroshima and
Nagasaki." "In my life I haven't seen destruction on this scale," Abboud
said. "This is a national catastrophe."
The blast comes at a tense time in Lebanon. On Friday a UN-backed panel
is expected to issue a verdict on the 2005 assassination of former prime
minister Rafik Hariri, a move many fear will stoke sectarian tensions.
The country is also in the midst of an economic meltdown, with
ballooning unemployment, a tanking currency and poverty rates soaring
above 50%.
Hospitals inundated
Chaotic scenes filled Beirut's hospitals Tuesday as doctors conducted
triage on dozens of wounded people. Some had broken limbs, others had
been showered with shards of glass. Some patients were unconscious.
Emergency wards are inundated with the injured. One of Beirut's major
hospitals, Hotel Dieu, received around 400 injured patients, an employee
told CNN.
The American University of Beirut Medical Center has been unable to
receive more patients, partly due to blast damage, according to state media.
The Secretary-General of the Kataeb political Party, Nazar Najarian,
died after being injured in the explosion, Lebanese state media NNA
reported. He was in his office when the explosion happened.
The blast damaged buildings across the city, including the official
residence of Lebanon's president, the headquarters of former Prime
Minister Saad Hariri, and CNN's bureau in downtown Beirut. Homes as far
as 10 kilometers away were damaged, according to witnesses.
One Beirut resident who was several kilometers away from the site of the
blast said her windows had been shattered by the explosion. "What I felt
was that it was an earthquake," Rania Masri told CNN.
"The apartment shook horizontally and all of a sudden it felt like an
explosion and the windows and doors burst open. The glass just broke. So
many homes were damaged or destroyed."

The blast damaged buildings across the city, including the port.
"You can see injured people all over the streets in Beirut, glass all
over the place, cars are damaged, it is like an apocalypse," said Bachar
Ghattas, another eyewitness.
"It is very, very frightening what is happening right now, and people
are freaking out. The emergency services are overwhelmed," Ghattas told
CNN. "Beirut port is totally destroyed."
World mourns
Prime Minister Diab described the explosion as a "catastrophe" in his
televised statement. He concluded by making "an emergency call to all
those countries who love this country to stand by us and to help us heal
our deep wounds." World leaders soon expressed their condolences amid
the unfolding tragedy.
Israel offered humanitarian medical assistance to Lebanon -- a
significant offer as Lebanon is one of a small number of countries that
Israel regards as an enemy state. There have been no diplomatic
relations since a ceasefire signed between the two countries in 1949.
The UK, Turkey, Qatar and Spain were also among the countries that
offered their support to Lebanon.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called his Lebanese counterpart
Charbel Wahbeh to say that"Jordanians stand in support with Lebanon and
its Lebanese brothers and are ready to offer any help they need," he
said in a tweet.
French President Emmanuel Macron said "rescue and aid" were on the way
to Lebanon, while expressing solidarity with the "Lebanese people after
the explosion that caused so many casualties and so much damage tonight
in Beirut."
Thousands were wounded from the blast
Thousands were wounded from the blast
Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that his country was ready
to help Lebanon "in any way necessary."
"My thoughts are with the people of #Lebanon and with the families of
the victims of the tragic #BeirutBlast," President of the European
Council Charles Michel said in a tweet. "The EU stands ready to provide
assistance and support."
The United States Ambassador in Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, expressed
"heartfelt sympathies" to the victims and their families after "having
witnessed the horrific explosions at the Port," she said in a statement
shared on Twitter.
"We mourn each loss from this terrible tragedy alongside the Lebanese
people," the US Ambassador added.
CNN's Schams Elwazer, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Tara John, Alessandra Massi,
Nada AlTaher, Hamdi Alkhshali, Amir Tal and Andrew Carey contributed to
this report.

[Jim Wilkins]

"a425couple" wrote in message news:***@news2.newsguy.com...

Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.

===================

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

[a425couple]

Post by a425couple
Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.
===================
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

Yes, I did think about that incident.
Things that explode, do travel in ships.
And so, are temporarily kept at port warehouses.
Sad that in Lebanon, it seems they seized this stuff
many years ago, and just kept it sitting in
a warehouse near downtown.

[a425couple]

Post by a425couple

Post by a425couple
Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.
===================
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

Yes, I did think about that incident.
Things that explode, do travel in ships.
And so, are temporarily kept at port warehouses.
Sad that in Lebanon, it seems they seized this stuff
many years ago, and just kept it sitting in
a warehouse near downtown.

from
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/beirut-explosion-news-lebanon-corruption-deaths-latest-a9655286.html

Corruption brought Lebanon to its knees. The explosion was a coup de grace
Before the country's economic collapse – and the Covid-19 pandemic –
really came to bear, there were mass protests. That anger is bound to
return, stronger than ever


Richard Hall
@_richardhall
1 day ago
27 comments
To truly understand the lasting impact of the explosion that tore
through the heart of Lebanon’s capital on Tuesday, it’s important to
turn back the clock to the day before.

Before thousands of windows were shattered across the city and the hills
beyond, Lebanon had already endured a series of shock waves that left it
transformed beyond all recognition.

Before an untold number of livelihoods were lost, the country was
already in the midst of an unprecedented economic collapse that had
destroyed its middle class and forced the poor into destitution. Some
economists predict the poverty rate could rise to as high as 80 per cent.

Before Beirut was plunged into darkness by the explosion, much of the
country was lucky to receive more than a few hours of electricity a day
due to the cash-stricken government’s inability to afford enough fuel.
On the morning of the blast, dozens of protesters had stormed the energy
ministry in protest over increased power rationing.

Watch more

Doctors treat wounded amid destroyed hospitals after Beirut blast
Before the blast sent cancer patients fleeing from their wards in the
badly damaged hospitals, those medical facilities were already
overwhelmed by a pandemic that was worsening by the day. The country had
just a week ago reimposed a lockdown amid another spike in cases.

Before a plume of poisonous gas rose into the air from the chemical
explosion, Lebanon’s waters and beaches were dangerously polluted.
Sewage would pour into the sea not far from where its residents swam.

And before a port which brings in most of Lebanon’s food was decimated,
along with a grain silo that could hold 120,000 tonnes, it was already
facing a “major food crisis”. So-called “hunger crimes” – when people
steal items such as baby milk, food and medicine – were skyrocketing.

Countries have gone to war and not experienced the level of devastation
seen in Lebanon these past six months. These overlapping crises make the
explosion that rocked Beirut appear less of a disaster and more like a
coup de grace. A country that was on its knees has been dealt a deadly
blow, and it is hard to see how it will recover.

Massive explosion rocks central Beirut
Show all 24




But by whom was the blow delivered? That much was clear to some even
before the dust had settled.

While the investigation into the cause of the explosion is still
ongoing, the country’s interior minister Mohammed Fahmi suggested the
blast was likely caused by more than 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate
that was confiscated in 2014 and had been stored in a warehouse at the
port ever since.

There are only two reasons why such a quantity of highly explosive
substance would be held for so long in the port. One is negligence, the
other is corruption. In Lebanon, both are a part of daily life, a method
by which the country’s ruling class have killed their citizens for decades.

They are the same reasons why garbage piles up in the streets
sporadically in Lebanon during squabbles over the spoils of waste
disposal contracts, why the country cannot provide stable electricity
supply, and why thousands of young Lebanese are leaving the country
every year.

A corrupt political elite that has ruled the country since the end of
the civil war, made up of the warlords from that very conflict, has
robbed generations of Lebanese citizens of their right to be treated as
citizens and not dependents.

How Lebanon’s spontaneous protests led to calls for revolution
It was not for lack of a fight that they succeeded. Before the
coronavirus and the economic collapse really came to bear in Lebanon,
mass protests against its corrupt leaders spread across the country.
“All of them means all of them,” the protesters chanted, in recognition
that despite the bogus adversarial theatre in parliament, the country’s
political parties and leaders were all the same. It was a call for an
end to the sectarianism that had allowed those leaders to remain in
power for so long.

The protests were the largest and most diverse in decades, but they
subsided under the weight of Lebanon’s many crises. That anger is bound
to return in the aftermath of this accident. Indeed, this disaster feels
to some like an extension of the same corruption that has killed them
for years.

Sara Assaf, a Lebanese activist, summed it up with these words in the
hours after the explosion: “They killed us financially. They killed us
economically. They killed us physically. They killed us morally. They
killed us chemically. There’s not one form of death they haven’t used
with us. Damn our political class.”

Watch more

A seized ship and the Russian connection to Beirut blast
A piece published by writer Lina Mounzer on the eve of the explosion
made clear the desperation felt by many Lebanese. She wrote that a myth
of Lebanese resilience had betrayed the country, and that today
“exhaustion is heavy in the voices and faces of everyone I encounter”.

“Perhaps resilience has always been the lie we have been fed and that we
continue to tell ourselves in order to keep functioning under a state so
corrupt it cannot provide a bare minimum of public or social services,”
she added.


“We Lebanese thought we could survive anything. We were wrong,” the
piece was titled.

That was before. How will they survive now, with so much of the
country’s heart, Beirut, in ruins? How will they get electricity in
their homes? How will food be imported now that the country’s largest
port is destroyed? How will its medical system contain the coronavirus
when they are overwhelmed with casualties from the blast? How will
people get the things they need when they have no money and shops are
closed?

If all of those crises were insurmountable in the moments before the
explosion, what are they now?


MORE ABOUT:
LEBANON | CORRUPTION | BEIRUT
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[Byker]

"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message news:rgebb3$i8m$***@dont-email.me...

"a425couple" wrote in message news:***@news2.newsguy.com...

Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.

Post by Jim Wilkins

Post by Jim Wilkins
===================

At first I thought it was a Hezbollah bomb "factory":

Post by Jim Wilkins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

Halifax explosion, 1917:

[Byker]

Post by a425couple
Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.
(Jerk ass CNN - fills the top of the page with another
of their bias filled TDS headlines.
How can those assholes waste so many words, and
not mention what others can??
"Authorities said they had not determined a cause for the blast. Abbas
Ibrahim, chief of Lebanese General Security, said it might have been
caused by highly explosive material that was confiscated from a ship some
time ago and stored at the port. Local television channel LBC said the
material was sodium nitrate.")

If they'd done their homework, they'd have known that sodium nitrate is
hygroscopic, that is, it absorbs moisture from the air and will gel into a
plastic-like goo if not kept dehumidified. Potassium- and ammonium nitrate
don't have that drawback...

[Jim Wilkins]

Post by a425couple
Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.
(Jerk ass CNN - fills the top of the page with another
of their bias filled TDS headlines.
How can those assholes waste so many words, and
not mention what others can??
"Authorities said they had not determined a cause for the blast. Abbas
Ibrahim, chief of Lebanese General Security, said it might have been
caused by highly explosive material that was confiscated from a ship some
time ago and stored at the port. Local television channel LBC said the
material was sodium nitrate.")

If they'd done their homework, they'd have known that sodium nitrate is
hygroscopic, that is, it absorbs moisture from the air and will gel into a
plastic-like goo if not kept dehumidified. Potassium- and ammonium nitrate
don't have that drawback...

===========================

The journos would have to look up and understand 'hygroscopic', and they'd
discover that the material is contaminated with this:
https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/ban-dihydrogen-oxide.html

[Dean Markley]

Post by Byker

Post by a425couple
Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.
(Jerk ass CNN - fills the top of the page with another
of their bias filled TDS headlines.
How can those assholes waste so many words, and
not mention what others can??
"Authorities said they had not determined a cause for the blast. Abbas
Ibrahim, chief of Lebanese General Security, said it might have been
caused by highly explosive material that was confiscated from a ship some
time ago and stored at the port. Local television channel LBC said the
material was sodium nitrate.")

If they'd done their homework, they'd have known that sodium nitrate is
hygroscopic, that is, it absorbs moisture from the air and will gel into a
plastic-like goo if not kept dehumidified. Potassium- and ammonium nitrate
don't have that drawback...

Potassium nitrate is not very hygroscopic but ammonium nitrate actually is. Quite often, ammonium nitrate prills will be coated with wax or a surfactant to avoid absorbtion of moisture.

[Alexander Schreiber]

Post by Byker

Post by a425couple
Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.
(Jerk ass CNN - fills the top of the page with another
of their bias filled TDS headlines.
How can those assholes waste so many words, and
not mention what others can??
"Authorities said they had not determined a cause for the blast. Abbas
Ibrahim, chief of Lebanese General Security, said it might have been
caused by highly explosive material that was confiscated from a ship some
time ago and stored at the port. Local television channel LBC said the
material was sodium nitrate.")

If they'd done their homework, they'd have known that sodium nitrate is
hygroscopic, that is, it absorbs moisture from the air and will gel into a
plastic-like goo if not kept dehumidified. Potassium- and ammonium nitrate
don't have that drawback...

It was 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate. As keeps being demonstrated, that
stuff react rather vigorously when sufficient heat is applied. Storing
such a large amount near stuff one _doesn't_ want to be destroyed is
generally a bad idea - as people keep discovering.

And ammonium nitrate will also absorb humidity, except instead of turning
into goo, it will first turn into a brick. Coating ammonium nitrate prills
with wax to avoid that was experimentally found to be not such an awesome
idea (see the Texas City disaster).

Kind regards,
Alex.

[Byker]

Coating ammonium nitrate prills with wax to avoid that was experimentally
found to be not such an awesome idea (see the Texas City disaster).

The wax provided the fuel for the nitrate to oxidize....

[Keith Willshaw]

Post by Byker

Post by a425couple
Lebanon explosion, dozens dead, thousands wounded.
(Jerk ass CNN - fills the top of the page with another
of their bias filled TDS headlines.
How can those assholes waste so many words, and
not mention what others can??
"Authorities said they had not determined a cause for the blast. Abbas
Ibrahim, chief of Lebanese General Security, said it might have been
caused by highly explosive material that was confiscated from a ship some
time ago and stored at the port. Local television channel LBC said the
material was sodium nitrate.")

If they'd done their homework, they'd have known that sodium nitrate is
hygroscopic, that is, it absorbs moisture from the air and will gel into a
plastic-like goo if not kept dehumidified. Potassium- and ammonium nitrate
don't have that drawback...

Well now the problem with that theory is that what exploded in Beirut
WAS Ammonium Nitrate, further more there was a similar sized explosion
of Ammonium Nitrate aboard a ship in a US port in 1947.

"The 1947 Texas City disaster was an industrial accident that occurred
on April 16, 1947, in the Port of Texas City, Texas, at Galveston Bay.
It was the deadliest industrial accident in United States history and
one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions. A mid-morning fire
started on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp (docked in
the port) and detonated her cargo of about 2,300 tons (about 2,100
metric tons) of ammonium nitrate.This started a chain reaction of fires
and explosions in other ships and nearby oil-storage facilities,
ultimately killing at least 581 people, including all but one member of
the Texas City fire department.


The disaster drew the first class action lawsuit against the United
States government, on behalf of 8,485 victims, under the 1946 Federal
Tort Claims Act."

In the UK Ammonium Nitrate for use as fertilizer has to be stabilised on
manufacture to resist detonation and to enforce this samples are subject
to testing there is a very large plant making this within 10 miles of
where I live and in the 1970's I used to work in the Ammonia plant next
door.

This may be why Lebanon was unable to sell it on. Most if not all
countries in Europe have similar laws as I am sure do the local Arab
states. The last thing the Syrians, Israelis or Jordanians want is
freely available off the shelf explosive.

Explosive grade Ammonium Nitrate is available for jobs like quarrying
but its availablity is restricted to licensed users and the Ammonium
Nitrate is usually mixed with fuel oil. What likely happened in Beirut
was that the 'Fertiliser' which was stored in a hot unventitlated tin
building decomposed. The reaction is exothermically into nitrous oxide
and water which turns into ammonia and nitric acid vapor which when
confined can detonate.

To prevent this the then ICI Ammonium Nitrate plant stored the
unstabilised raw product in small quantities in refrigerated stores.
These were treated like any other high explosive and stored in walled
bunds with a light weight roof so that any explosion would vent straight
up and could not set off the rest of the inventory.

[Jim Wilkins]

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message news:rgotik$43p$***@dont-email.me...

In the UK Ammonium Nitrate for use as fertilizer has to be stabilised on
manufacture to resist detonation and to enforce this samples are subject
to testing there is a very large plant making this within 10 miles of
where I live and in the 1970's I used to work in the Ammonia plant next
door.

==============================

How is it stabilized?

[Keith Willshaw]

Post by Keith Willshaw
In the UK Ammonium Nitrate for use as fertilizer has to be stabilised on
manufacture to resist detonation and to enforce this samples are subject
to testing  there is a very large plant making this within 10 miles of
where I live and in the 1970's I used to work in the Ammonia plant next
door.
==============================
How is it stabilized?

A combination of coating the particles to reduce their hygroxcopity and
adding substances to reduce their tendency to detonate. Inert materials
such as chalk and limestone are used to take the concentration below a
critical level which also reduces the tendency to detonate. This also
reduces the tendency of ammonium nitrate to acidify the soil. n fact
tests showed the apparently contradictory fact that such stabilised
ammoinium nitrate produced better yields as the calcium improves growth
rates which in the northern parts of the UK is important. Here in NE
England we are at a latitude of 55 deg N.