I was surprised how many cell phones just happened to be aimed at the area and filming when the explosion happened. Perhaps there was smoke prior to the explosion.
Because there was a fire, which created the column of smoke, that’s what everyone was watching and recording.
I’d like to see video from surveillance cam aimed that way and pretty close. For some reason the phone camera videos all seem to go screwy right after the big blast...
There was smoke and fire from the FIRST explosion.