Ammonium Nitrate

Sodium chlorate weedkiller was fun: put some on a hard surface and hit it with a hammer -- and BANG!

 

I just heard that there was a fire first of all.

And there are now a quarter of a million residents of Beirut who have lost their homes.

 

No, not exactly.

And this is what I don't understand about the current discussion.
McVeigh and others who make explosives containing Ammonium Nitrate, also need to add a source of CARBON to complete the process.
In his case, it was diesel fuel.

There has been no mention of any other ingredient in the warehouse explosion.
I don't think that mostly pure Ammonium Nitrate will explode like that.

I had a though of looking this up......but then decided that I don't want the BATF knocking on my door.

 

Added carbon makes it even stronger, but is not essential. The fertilizer version itself can go, under certain conditions:
Texas City disaster - Wikipedia

 

^ That.

I'm leaning a little closer to the accident theory for now, since we already have historical gezamples.

 

While I don't wish to prematurely rule out successful enemy action, the accident / dysfunctional government combo is such a simple and well worn path, that it should be the betting favorite under Occam's Razor.

 

While spontaneous overheating runaway is theoretically possible, some other news indicated that this mini-nuke stockpile was stored in Warehouse #12. Separately, a welding mishap in Warehouse #9 ignited a fire. The fire then spread enough to no longer be separated.

So dysfunctional government didn't directly ignite the mishap, merely set the stage with millions of pounds of fuel. And left it set and primed indefinitely until something -- almost anything -- could ignite it.

 

I just read that a former Beirut port worker claims that there were quantities of fireworks stored in that same facility.

 

i read that too, not sure of the veracity

 

Some of the disaster videos did appear to show some fireworks popping off before the main explosion.

The forensic investigators ought to have more comments about that in the future, e.g. fireworks vs. other items or explosives scattered by the earlier smaller explosions.

 

That's why there's so much video of the main event I suppose, although with the amount of fireworks that are being expended in the US this summer, I'm quite amazed that there are enough of them left abroad to cause the mishap.

Given Lebanon's rather turbulent history, and the fact that oil security is much different than it was 35 years ago.....it will be interesting to see how the locals react.
It will also be interesting to see how some of our favorite terror groups that begin with the letter "h" will act.

As far as the local government:
Play stupid games......
Win stupid prizes.

 

... and collapse frequently.

Lebanon's government stepped down today. Again. This Prime Minister had served 202 days. Not a historical aberration at all. Over my lifetime, the average has been under two years:

List of prime ministers of Lebanon - Wikipedia

 

According to Reuters, fireworks were stored in the same hangar.

After twice-a-year warnings sent up the chain of command went unanswered for years, a judge finally started an investigation early this year, and found a hole in one wall, dislodged doors, and no guards. The final report included an immediate 'fix it' order. After bouncing through however many levels of bureaucracy, port authorities sent a team of unsupervised Syrian workers to perform the maintenance work. Welding sparks started a fire, which after an hour, was big enough to reach the fireworks. It then spread faster, until ...

"Reuters could not determine what happened to the workers repairing the hangar."

Reuters: Exclusive: Lebanon's leaders warned in July about explosives at port - documents

 

The pieces are too small for anybody to collect.

 

I used to talk about ANFO before Oklahoma City.*

Let me say this; A fuel may find an oxidizer and become an explosive.
An oxidizer is LOOKING for a fuel to become an explosive.

Seven years is a long time for an oxidizer to fail to find a fuel.

*i will say we had EPA permission to 'recycle' our used motor oil into the ANFO as part of the FO.

There is a blast in all the propaganda.

 

this explains the whole carlos ghosn story

 

Yay autogenerated closed captions!

"I can't think of a division that doesn't have some sort of female frozen."

 

Small point.
He's "resigned" but not stepped down just yet - although as I type this....the day isn't over just yet.

 

Yet another revision, this time from Reuters:

How powerful was the Beirut blast?

"Experts have estimated the size of the blast as being the equivalent of 200 to 300 tons of high explosives."

Seismograph records show 6 blasts in 11 seconds, than a 43 delay until the big bast.