Beirut - Explosion - Many Killed

[turtlespeed 212]

Damn.

I hope this wasn't terrorism.

I hope there isn't any suffering.  I useless hope, I know, but I still hope what suffering there is, to be minimal.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/huge-explosion-rocks-lebanon-capital-beirut-live-updates-200804163620414.html

 

[wmw999 2,120]

Yeah, this is a case where stupid is a superior answer to terrorism

Wendy P.

[riggerrob 558]

1 hour ago, wmw999 said:

Yeah, this is a case where stupid is a superior answer to terrorism

Wendy P.

Hanlon's Razor

[Coreece 190]

12 minutes ago, riggerrob said:

1 hour ago, wmw999 said:

Yeah, this is a case where stupid is a superior answer to terrorism

Wendy P.

Hanlon's Razor

Except when you're in the middle east.

[Phil1111 910]

"Officials linked the explosion to some 2,700 tonnes of confiscated ammonium nitrate that were being stored in a warehouse at the port for six years."

trump weighed in with a quick lie

"We have a very good relationship with the people of Lebanon and we will be there to help. It looks like a terrible attack," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"I've met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that this was not some kind of manufacturing explosion type of an event ... They seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind."

2,700 tonnes would take a big truck or airplane but trump is on it.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Phil1111

[turtlespeed 212]

2 minutes ago, Phil1111 said:

"Officials linked the explosion to some 2,700 tonnes of confiscated ammonium nitrate that were being stored in a warehouse at the port for six years."

trump weighed in with a quick lie

"We have a very good relationship with the people of Lebanon and we will be there to help. It looks like a terrible attack," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"I've met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that this was not some kind of manufacturing explosion type of an event ... They seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind."

2,700 tonnes would take a big truck or airplane but trump is on it.

Reports are coming in that it was a warehouse with confiscated materials.

The prime minister says he doesn't want to preempt the investigation.

[headoverheels 291]

7 minutes ago, Phil1111 said:

2,700 tonnes would take a big truck or airplane but trump is on it.

It was already there, and had been (reportedly) for 6 years.   The question is what/who started the fire that led to the explosion.  Trump thinking out loud as usual, with the usual exception of the "thinking" part.

[turtlespeed 212]

Just now, headoverheels said:

It was already there, and had been (reportedly) for 6 years.   The question is what/who started the fire that led to the explosion.  Trump thinking out loud as usual, with the usual exception of the "thinking" part.

He should really stop that.  It helps no one.

I've given up hope that he will though.

[Coreece 190]

1 hour ago, headoverheels said:

The question is what/who started the fire that led to the explosion.

And what is that series of random flashes before the explosion?

[headoverheels 291]

9 minutes ago, Coreece said:

And what is that series of random flashes before the explosion?

There were also initial reports of fireworks stored in the area, but who knows if that has any validity.

 

[turtlespeed 212]

What I can gather is that there was a warehouse storing dangerous materials, fireworks, explosives. and other stuff.

They are investigating what the start of the fire was.  They are also trying to find out why the material was still stored there after 6 years.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53656220

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by turtlespeed

[gowlerk 1,904]

2 hours ago, headoverheels said:

The question is what/who started the fire that led to the explosion. 

This about the same amount of ammonium nitrate as in the Texas City disaster of 1947, and much more than the more recent West TX event. That one was caused by arson.

[gowlerk 1,904]

1 hour ago, Coreece said:

And what is that series of random flashes before the explosion?

If there was already firefighters pouring water on it they may have been causing a reaction that would do that.

[normiss 622]

Some serious video via LiveLeak

Warning, NSFW maybe, blood, violence, and death.

One hell of an explosion.

[Coreece 190]

23 minutes ago, normiss said:

Some serious video via LiveLeak

Warning, NSFW maybe, blood, violence, and death.

One hell of an explosion.

I only watched up to the 1:15 mark, just enough to determine what those flashes were.  Definitely sounded like fireworks.  No blood/deaths shown up to that point - hopefully the people in those clips survived despite being so close.  I probably won't watch any further than that.

[billvon 2,392]

1 hour ago, gowlerk said:

If there was already firefighters pouring water on it they may have been causing a reaction that would do that.

From the first (small) explosion to the final explosion was about 20 seconds, so it's unlikely that there were firefighters there (unless there was a much smaller fire preceding the first explosion.)

 

[gowlerk 1,904]

2 minutes ago, billvon said:

From the first (small) explosion to the final explosion was about 20 seconds, so it's unlikely that there were firefighters there (unless there was a much smaller fire preceding the first explosion.)

 

Well, judging by the huge plume of smoke that was already in the air at the beginning of the video I would say yes, there was already a good sized fire happening. And that is also likely what was being videoed at the time.

[Coreece 190]

30 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

35 minutes ago, billvon said:

From the first (small) explosion to the final explosion was about 20 seconds, so it's unlikely that there were firefighters there (unless there was a much smaller fire preceding the first explosion.)

 

Well, judging by the huge plume of smoke that was already in the air at the beginning of the video I would say yes, there was already a good sized fire happening. And that is also likely what was being videoed at the time.

 

(Again, just a warning that the 2 clips below are very close, so the survivability of those recording is questionable.)

 

The :39 second mark linked below form the video that normiss posted shows when that huge plume started, then 30 seconds later was the large explosion.

https://youtu.be/9uf-ehxZpGU?t=39

 

If you go back to the :18 second mark it seems like people are cheering.  You can see the flashes and hear what almost unmistakably sounds like fireworks.

https://youtu.be/9uf-ehxZpGU?t=18

 

[Phil1111 910]

Evidently trump can't be shown to be a liar. So he and WH staff has doubled down today on the idea that the 2700 ton bomb was an attack.

"White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows defended President Donald Trump's description of a deadly explosion in Beirut as an "attack," dismissing Defense Secretary Mark Esper's earlier comments that most officials believe the incident was "an accident."

"I can tell you from Secretary Esper's standpoint, he doesn't know. I had a meeting with him earlier today," Meadows said Wednesday. "I can tell you the initial reports was exactly what the president shared with all of you."

Trump's initial comments on the explosion — in which he said he met with "some of our great generals," who "just seem to feel" that it was an attack using "a bomb of some kind"— sent aides scrambling to do damage control. Multiple outlets quoted senior defense officials saying there was no evidence that the incident was an attack.

But hours later, Meadows sharply contradicted the defense secretary, and defended Trump's comments as "not speculation on his part."

I'm sure Lebanese officials are holding their breaths in anticipation of trump's "evidence from his generals".

[airdvr 197]

20 hours ago, Coreece said:

 

(Again, just a warning that the 2 clips below are very close, so the survivability of those recording is questionable.)

 

The :39 second mark linked below form the video that normiss posted shows when that huge plume started, then 30 seconds later was the large explosion.

https://youtu.be/9uf-ehxZpGU?t=39

 

If you go back to the :18 second mark it seems like people are cheering.  You can see the flashes and hear what almost unmistakably sounds like fireworks.

https://youtu.be/9uf-ehxZpGU?t=18

 

Might not ever know the true death toll.  I think anyone standing in the open within a 1/4 miles of that is dust.

[billvon 2,392]

1 hour ago, Phil1111 said:

I'm sure Lebanese officials are holding their breaths in anticipation of trump's "evidence from his generals".

Not just his generals, his great generals.

 

[JerryBaumchen 1,047]

37 minutes ago, billvon said:

Not just his generals, his great generals.

 

Hi folks,

Just when are you going to learn; Trump does have 'just' generals, he always has 'great' generals.  That is until he fires them.

Jerry Baumchen

[ryoder 1,381]

According to the Lebanese government, about 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer was stored in a warehouse on the Beirut waterfront and caught fire, later exploding. The fertilizer arrived in the city more than six years ago aboard a Russian-owned cargo ship that made an unscheduled stop in the city. Lebanese port officials said they made several requests to the courts to have the stockpile removed, but got no response.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/world/middleeast/beirut-explosion-ammonium-nitrate.html

Ahhh,,,so the Russians conspired with the Lebanese courts to blow up Beirut.

[headoverheels 291]

2 hours ago, ryoder said:

According to the Lebanese government, about 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer was stored in a warehouse on the Beirut waterfront and caught fire, later exploding. The fertilizer arrived in the city more than six years ago aboard a Russian-owned cargo ship that made an unscheduled stop in the city. Lebanese port officials said they made several requests to the courts to have the stockpile removed, but got no response.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/world/middleeast/beirut-explosion-ammonium-nitrate.html

Ahhh,,,so the Russians conspired with the Lebanese courts to blow up Beirut.

 

The explosion could have been an accident.  It could have been someone, knowing the ammonium nitrate was there, taking advantage of that to set off the explosion.  I hope that we will know.

[jakee 1,254]

1 hour ago, RobertMBlevins said:

You have to wonder if the first explosion was deliberately done to CAUSE the other. 

Yeah, but only because it’s Beirut. Warehouses catch fire and chemical factories and refineries explode all over the world with reasonable frequency and no one wonders about terrorism.