Posted on 08/05/2020 8:31:01 AM PDT by C19fan
A series of videos captured the devastation in Beirut as an explosion tore through the Lebanese capital - killing at least 100 people dead and injuring more than 4,000.
Footage from across the blast site filmed the apocalyptic scenes yesterday which saw ceilings collapse, families shelter for cover, offices ripped apart and buildings engulfed in flames.
It is thought the explosion was triggered by more than 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate - the main ingredient in fertilizer bombs.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
How was the ammonium nitrate in Beirut manufactured?
At least they didn’t kill 100 dead people.
Deserves repeating that this explosion destroyed the country’s main grain storage complex..
That may turn into a bigger disaster than the explosion.
https://mobile.twitter.com/search?q=Uae&src=typed_query&f=live
And now there’s a big fire in UAE at a marketplace/industrial park. Also a large food warehouse in Najaf up in flames.
Lots of fire in the ME.
It seems Najaf fire is misreported- looks as if it’s just the UAE fire. Twitter just having a moment.
CBS morning news foreign news correspondent Charlie D'Agat said 85% of Lebanons stored grain was in the destroyed granaries. Lebanon has to import almost all their food. Link: https://youtu.be/8qjnywF39Jw @ about 2:42 mins.
“How was the ammonium nitrate in Beirut manufactured?”
that’s a good question, i.e., what if anything was mixed with it ...
I found this. Apparently it was called Nitriprill HD.
“The Nitroprill HD indicating high density is probably physically robust porous prill with a built-in resistance to breakdown due to temperature cycling and abrasion as indicated by western experts”
Let them drink their oil then. Problem solved.
Adding to the rampant speculation I was reading #Beirutexplosion on twit and found a Lebanese source that said the fire was touched off by a welder’s torch which grew into the blaze that set off the AN.
That was in the UK news article also.
Falafel and Pita prices in Lebanon are going to skyrocket.
ANFO stinks. There is no way those guys would be standing around that much of it without cringing.
speculation is that Nitroprill HD is a knockoff of Orica’s Nitropril:
http://www.oricaminingservices.com/au/en/product/products_and_services/bulk_systems/nitropril/56
the technical data sheet for Nirtropril states:
Safety Features
Nitropril™ is a strong oxidizing substance, which will react with organic materials, reducing agents and metal powders. Whilst not combustible on its own, Nitropril™ supports combustion and increases the intensity of a fire.
Nitropril™ is not readily detonated in unconfined conditions, but will react with materials such as strong reducing agents and metal powders.
When heated to decomposition, Nitropril™ produces nitrous
oxide and white ammonium nitrate mist and or brown fumes.
Brown fumes indicate the presence of toxic oxides of nitrogen”
http://www.oricaminingservices.com/download/file_id_21273/
In April of 1947, I was in the 4th grade in Webster, Texas -- and the shock wave from the Grandcamp explosion knocked art supplies off of our desks. While I was picking my stuff up, lots of kids ran to the windows, saw the mushroom cloud, and shouted, "An A-Bomb!"
I took one look at the orange cloud, (which looked like the fumes in the top of a nitric acid bottle) and, said, "Nope -- that's a chemical explosion. Probably at the Monsanto plant..."
Soon the smoke turned dark brown, then black -- so, it was obvious that some of the oil refineries and/or tank farms were involved.
The school shut down and bussed us all home -- to clear the narrow Old Galveston Highway for emergency traffic.
~~~~~~~~~~~
So -- as soon as I saw that reddish-orange smoke column in Beirut, photos, I knew, "Ammonium Nitrate!"
Texas City was a big one: 2.3 KT of AN -- and Beirut was bigger: 2.75 KT.
As you posted, much of the damage/death in TC was from shrapnel -- or whole slabs of 1" thick ship hull plating... Plus, the whole industrial end of town was one big firebomb -- waiting to blow... Worse, with the exception of one man who was on vacation, the Grandcamp blast wiped out all the firemen and equipment of the Texas City Fire Department...
TXnMA
TXnMA
FYI, as wrote in #56, all the equipment -- and all but one fireman in the Texas City fire department were wiped out in the 2.3 KT SS Grandcamp ammonium nitrate blast.
TXnMA
Thank you.
The one in West, TX in 2013 had 240 tons of fertilizer....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Fertilizer_Company_explosion
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.