We were 600 meters away from the blast walking peacefully in the popular Beirut street Mar Mikhael. The scale of the explosion was surreal [1]. I hugged my sister and thought it’s our last moment. We miraculously survived with only a few scratches. Ten days have passed and there’s not a single minute I don’t think of what happened and emulate different scenarios where I could’ve died.
I also work at the most affected hospital that became instantly non-operational and had to be evacuated with over 17 patients, staff, and visitors dead [2].
I had a similar personal reaction after getting into a high speed car crash (mechanical failure of my car, while traveling at 70 mph on the highway. Entered a spin, slid off the road, did at least one complete roll). 8 years later, I still sometimes think of all the ways the crash could have gone differently that would have resulted in my death.
If I was going a little faster, my car could have ended up in the irrigation ditch and caused me to drown. The 220 lb combat robot in the trunk it could have killed me during the tumble (it tore through its straps and ripped through the back seats into the car). If I had a passenger, the only part of the roof that wasn't crushed in was the driver. A passenger could've easily been killed.
The result was a few superficial injuries (bruises from seatbelt and airbag system). Unscathed otherwise. Woke up thinking the car was on fire (was smoke from airbag) and crawled out. Walked down the street to find my phone (it was in my backpack which flew out a window during the crash) and called for an ambulance.
These are natural human reactions, but the sad truth is that many of the things in our lives come down to luck. You can only do so much to make your environment safer. I, for one, have never transported another one of those combat robots inside my vehicle.
I wish you a speedy physical and metal recovery. Please consider getting counseling as there is a good chance you might experience symptoms of PTSD and early therapy after a traumatic experience can be a lot more effective than similar work down the line.
In my limited experience with traumatic situations, talking with people, especially people who have dealt with similar experiences, can help to temper the psychological impact. For now, though, just hang in there. Things can get better.
Is your house damaged? News reports showed several buildings which didn't bore the direct brunt of the blast have become structurally weakened by the shockwaves and that there are less chances that those buildings would be repaired.
If you are living in such a building, it would be wise to move away to a safer building far away if possible.
The St Georges hospital is doing God's work as are you. A wonderful institution that's stood there for 100+ years and will keep standing for 100+ more. Thank you for sharing your story and the links.
In case you can get in touch with the operators of the website, it could be helpful to let them know that it's common in Germany (and likely elsewhere) for people to avoid entering their credit card information on most websites due to security/privacy concerns. Being able to pay through trusted intermediaries (like PayPal) would make it more likely for people to make a donation.
An interesting “mundane” fact about this explosion is that it destroyed so many windows that there probably isn’t enough replacement glass in the country to fix all the windows. And with the port destroyed they don’t know how they’re going to receive more glass. Not to mention aluminum and other materials.
This recurrent memory that you can’t stop replaying is a symptom of PTSD. Of course your work and communal recovery cannot stop, but consider getting therapeutic treatment for yourself to help mitigate the impact of this event.
"there’s not a single minute I don’t think of what happened and emulate different scenarios where I could’ve died"
It might be helpful to hear that this is apparently a very common psychological reaction to surviving a disaster. Speaking as a survivor of a disaster, this is a reaction that I myself had. It does get better over time.
Also common, for those who lose loved ones or are injured themselves, is imagining different scenarios for emerging unscathed
I’ve had a few traumatic experiences in my past and it hurt me big time to not open up and talk about my feelings. I became withdrawn for years and only recently started opening back up.
If you ever feel like you need to vent to a complete stranger absolutely free of judgement, I’m here for you. Shoot me a Private message. I’m lebanese by the way, living in the US.
Focusing on the direct cause of the blast is a huge distraction from understanding why the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate were stored in the middle of Beirut for 7 years.
The president Aoun and his senior leadership were all aware of this problem but said they didn't have the authority to do anything about it. IMO, this is a hilariously bad argument that's deflecting who the most likely owner is. Aoun and his lackeys apparently have the authority to start a state of emergency and shoot protesters but don't have any such authority to prevent half of Beirut from being nuked.
The director of the Beirut port Badri Daher has been running bazaar ever since he's been in that position, regularly stealing supplies from shipments, suing reporters for defamation and beating up investigative journalists. The port director also reports to the Amal party which is closely allied to Aouns.
2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in the same building, next to a cache of fireworks, mind you. Corruption plays a part, but I'm astonished by the incompetence that's usually going hand in hand with the corruption. I'm surprised a catastrophe took 7 years to happen. You simply do not store that much fertilizer in a single place.
And Brazil (Brazilian here) sent a diplomatic mission to help. It's lead by our very own Badri Daher, the previous vice president who threw a coup against the previous president.
Welding, roof work, grinding. Those three are responsible for a good chunk of all fires. I've done quite a bit of all three and have to confess that once or twice I was lucky rather than smart to have no bad effects from a very small mistake. When grinding, all it takes is a rag used to degrease something days before at 30' to set it on fire. When welding you really want to keep a very good idea of what is on the other side of your weld at all times. Surprise: a box member of a car filled with PU foam. I really never saw that one coming. And finally, when working on a roof a friend of mine did not properly calculate in the effect of an exothermic reaction in a vat of resin exposed to the sun. Close call that one, averted by denying oxygen to the already burning vat.
This one is on a completely different level though, and I'm sure that the welders did not live to tell the tale. Even so, before you go and claim they were stupid you have to take into account that this is Beirut, not exactly a place where the local OHSA is going to beat down the doors to ensure everything is done safely and by the book, that in a harbor there are always lots of dangerous things in close proximity and that they may have taken all possible precautions and still ended up drawing an unlucky card.
It really doesn't. You don't even need a grinder. Oily rags can ignite spontaneously. People usually laugh at the phrase "spontaneous combustion" because it's so often associated with "spontaneous human combustion." But actual "spontaneous combustion" does happen in certain (not uncommon) circumstances. See: https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/Public-Education/Resource...
And what makes things even scarier, is realizing that buildings, ships, etc. that are either under construction or undergoing maintenance are more "at risk" because alarm systems, automatic fire suppression systems (eg, sprinklers), etc. are often times not in place yet, or disabled, while work is going on.
This is one reason it's so common to see a building complex that is under construction burn to the dirt if it catches fire, as opposed to a finished building where you might get a "room and contents" fire. No sheetrock, just miles and miles of exposed wood, no sprinklers, no alarm - recipe for disaster.
Before I got my auto-darkening mask when first learning GTAW welding I had a few close calls. The window is so dark you simply have no sense that a fire has started until it may be too late, you can't see anything at all unless it's the brightness of a lightning bolt.
Even with the auto-darkening window the field of view is substantially reduced.
I wonder if in the future welding masks will integrate fire alarms.
Quite. Once I was cutting out the rusted exhaust of a commercial truck with an ox-acetylene torch when the guy two bays away from me decided it was a good time to apply underbody coat to a new truck. The head mechanic started screaming and running around opening bays and we both stopped, probably saving us all.
Crappy electrical appliances (anything that charges a battery, powers a heating element or spins a low torque electric motor) cause far more fires then welding and grinding and other hazardous operations that internet commenters love to clutch pearls over are just so rare by comparison.
For every hour that someone has an arc struck there's a battery sitting on a charger for an order of magnitude more hours.
> Surprise: a box member of a car filled with PU foam.
Groan. I (novice) lit my Xterra on fire while welding on the wheel well. I was going at it and then heard that "whoomph" you never want to hear, and thick white smoke started coming from under the dash. Taking a chance, I ran to grab a small fire extinguisher, pointed it up under the dash, and emptied it. The cabin was full of that nasty powder but the fire stopped, and I never did find what was on fire. All the wiring seemed to work by some miracle. But yeah, that could easily have taken the house with it. Definitely know what's behind the weld.
> when working on a roof a friend of mine did not properly calculate in the effect of an exothermic reaction in a vat of resin exposed to the sun
I see now. The other two were obvious, but roof work seemed counter-intuitive. But if epoxy is used in the process, then yeah, I totally see that. I ended up with a garage full of smoke a couple times from working with more resin than I really needed for my projects.
I think you're completely correct. The San Diego ship fire basically totaled a amphibious assault ship (helo carrier) was also apparently caused by a welding accident.
If the conclusion you reach is that welders should be scapegoated for blowing up Beirut, then you are either corrupt or cretinous.
The real question is, why were the explosives there?
But pursuing that question might make powerful people uncomfortable, or lead to less satisfying conclusions about institutions deliberately designed to disperse accountability.
> Sparks from their welding work ignited a supply of fireworks, which had been stored next to the ammonium nitrate cache.
That sentence is nearly unbelievable, like something from a cartoon show. How much incompetence can you layer upon further incompetence to reach this insane level of danger?
Sparks from their welding work ignited a supply of fireworks, which had been stored next to the ammonium nitrate cache.
Seems a little unfair to blame this solely on welders -- the root cause was whoever decided it was a good idea to store 2700 tons of explosive fertilizer so close to a city.
Secondary is whoever decided it was a good idea to store fireworks in the warehouse that stored this explosive fertilizer.
Last on the list is the welders that were told to work on this door near the fireworks and fertilizer.
I don't understand why they'd store a cache of fireworks next to a cache of ammonium nitrate. And what kind of rent-a-welder wouldn't be aware enough of their surroundings and the associated risks that they wouldn't properly secure the perimeter from sparks?
I'm not the conspiratorial type, but it really does seem like there's some other information that we're not getting.
I worked in the fertilizer business and my company sold ammonium nitrate to farmers, mostly for use on potatoes. You need to use extreme care with this fertilizer.
No one could purchase it (even before Oklahoma City) without us knowing them. After Oklahoma City some TV stations in Grand Rapids sent reporters undercover trying to make purchases and they failed.
You need either dynamite or a substantial amount of heat to cause ammonium nitrate to explode. My boss tried to create a farm pond with it and his initial attempt failed. He failed to use enough dynamite ;<).
Personally I'd nominate the Beirut Port Authority for a Darwin award. Without the fireworks being stored in the building the welders sparks wouldn't have caused the explosion.
Lebanon is in severe economic crisis. And that effects everything, especially government spending.
You say, "a demo expert should oversee storage of these stuff appropriately", well that means hiring an expert. Or "use a professional repair crew"; that means protective gear, removal of explosives around, special cold-welding equipment; and all these require budget.
Hiring 2 immigrant welders for a week = 200 dollars (and I’m being extremely generous here). Versus taking all the security measures and use protective gear to do things right = 20.000 dollars.
I believe there are more and more bad things on the way for Lebanon. A major electricity outage, or a leak in a chemical plant, or a bridge collapsing... All due to maintenance problems, might be just around the corner.
Whose job is it to check the site come up with a safe plan where / before the welders work?
Maybe the welders should have known better, but there needs to be more between total disaster and welding than just some guys with welding tools who probably have little power to say no without consequences ...
I think many people are picturing the firework fuse getting ignited by a spark. But it seems more plausible that the packaging/box caught fire igniting the fireworks inside. Perhaps the packing/boxes obscured the contents of the boxes.
>Sparks from [the repair team's] welding work ignited a supply of fireworks, which had been stored next to the ammonium nitrate cache.
Oh wow, I was wondering what the white-ish sparkles were just prior to the explosion. It was the fireworks cache going off, which then ignited the 2750 tons of Ammonium Nitrate.
That's an immense amount of Ammonium Nitrate. I suspect one outcome of this will be a new ordinance/law will that disallow such large caches of explosive material from being stored in the same place. Rather it will have to be divvied up and distributed to holding facilities out of blast range of each other.
I’m having a hard time evaluating the credibility of this article. They mention “multiple sources,” but I can’t find any references. Can anyone find anything that vouches for the credibility of this report?
Can someone explain the “heat wave”-like distortion that the camera briefly experiences well before the blast wave seems to reach the building. How could an atmospheric effect make it to the camera at two different speeds?
Not to be callous to the incredible tragedy at play, but I simply find this video to be mesmerizing in its quality and potency.
In America we’re born and raised on countless explosions in pop culture whether it’s a Hollywood or gaming. They’re to the point of being so utterly mundane that it’s rare for Hollywood to wow an audience with a mere explosion anymore (though I could certainly name some memorable ones from over the years). We all now think we know what they look like in urban environments, and have for the last 30 years of high quality special effects. But. This video is real. And the details and nuances at play have simply never been depicted in film or tv before. To see the physics at play is simply mind boggling to me. I’d love to read a frame by frame account by a true expert of this 4K video.
[+] [-] Gerardd|5 years ago|reply
Please consider donating [3].
[1] https://youtu.be/SkIYjNGiaoA
[2] https://youtu.be/JIxuwE_WPXw
[3] https://www.stgeorgehospital.org/stgeorge-donation
[+] [-] Teknoman117|5 years ago|reply
If I was going a little faster, my car could have ended up in the irrigation ditch and caused me to drown. The 220 lb combat robot in the trunk it could have killed me during the tumble (it tore through its straps and ripped through the back seats into the car). If I had a passenger, the only part of the roof that wasn't crushed in was the driver. A passenger could've easily been killed.
The result was a few superficial injuries (bruises from seatbelt and airbag system). Unscathed otherwise. Woke up thinking the car was on fire (was smoke from airbag) and crawled out. Walked down the street to find my phone (it was in my backpack which flew out a window during the crash) and called for an ambulance.
These are natural human reactions, but the sad truth is that many of the things in our lives come down to luck. You can only do so much to make your environment safer. I, for one, have never transported another one of those combat robots inside my vehicle.
edit - 220 pound combat robot, not 300.
[+] [-] IgorPartola|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ISL|5 years ago|reply
In my limited experience with traumatic situations, talking with people, especially people who have dealt with similar experiences, can help to temper the psychological impact. For now, though, just hang in there. Things can get better.
[+] [-] Abishek_Muthian|5 years ago|reply
Is your house damaged? News reports showed several buildings which didn't bore the direct brunt of the blast have become structurally weakened by the shockwaves and that there are less chances that those buildings would be repaired.
If you are living in such a building, it would be wise to move away to a safer building far away if possible.
[+] [-] anonu|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AriaMinaei|5 years ago|reply
In case you can get in touch with the operators of the website, it could be helpful to let them know that it's common in Germany (and likely elsewhere) for people to avoid entering their credit card information on most websites due to security/privacy concerns. Being able to pay through trusted intermediaries (like PayPal) would make it more likely for people to make a donation.
[+] [-] TaylorAlexander|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kingkawn|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sg47|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] supernova87a|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rendall|5 years ago|reply
It might be helpful to hear that this is apparently a very common psychological reaction to surviving a disaster. Speaking as a survivor of a disaster, this is a reaction that I myself had. It does get better over time.
Also common, for those who lose loved ones or are injured themselves, is imagining different scenarios for emerging unscathed
[+] [-] lr4444lr|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] antoniotamer|5 years ago|reply
If you ever feel like you need to vent to a complete stranger absolutely free of judgement, I’m here for you. Shoot me a Private message. I’m lebanese by the way, living in the US.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] tozeur|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scott31|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] formalsystem|5 years ago|reply
Focusing on the direct cause of the blast is a huge distraction from understanding why the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate were stored in the middle of Beirut for 7 years.
The president Aoun and his senior leadership were all aware of this problem but said they didn't have the authority to do anything about it. IMO, this is a hilariously bad argument that's deflecting who the most likely owner is. Aoun and his lackeys apparently have the authority to start a state of emergency and shoot protesters but don't have any such authority to prevent half of Beirut from being nuked.
The director of the Beirut port Badri Daher has been running bazaar ever since he's been in that position, regularly stealing supplies from shipments, suing reporters for defamation and beating up investigative journalists. The port director also reports to the Amal party which is closely allied to Aouns.
[+] [-] rbanffy|5 years ago|reply
And Brazil (Brazilian here) sent a diplomatic mission to help. It's lead by our very own Badri Daher, the previous vice president who threw a coup against the previous president.
[+] [-] hn_throwaway_99|5 years ago|reply
1. Store 2750 tons of an explosive in the port of a major city.
2. Store it next to some fireworks???!!!
3. Do a welding job on the building.
This is stunning incompetence.
[+] [-] jacquesm|5 years ago|reply
This one is on a completely different level though, and I'm sure that the welders did not live to tell the tale. Even so, before you go and claim they were stupid you have to take into account that this is Beirut, not exactly a place where the local OHSA is going to beat down the doors to ensure everything is done safely and by the book, that in a harbor there are always lots of dangerous things in close proximity and that they may have taken all possible precautions and still ended up drawing an unlucky card.
It really doesn't take much.
[+] [-] mindcrime|5 years ago|reply
It really doesn't. You don't even need a grinder. Oily rags can ignite spontaneously. People usually laugh at the phrase "spontaneous combustion" because it's so often associated with "spontaneous human combustion." But actual "spontaneous combustion" does happen in certain (not uncommon) circumstances. See: https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/Public-Education/Resource...
And what makes things even scarier, is realizing that buildings, ships, etc. that are either under construction or undergoing maintenance are more "at risk" because alarm systems, automatic fire suppression systems (eg, sprinklers), etc. are often times not in place yet, or disabled, while work is going on.
This is one reason it's so common to see a building complex that is under construction burn to the dirt if it catches fire, as opposed to a finished building where you might get a "room and contents" fire. No sheetrock, just miles and miles of exposed wood, no sprinklers, no alarm - recipe for disaster.
[+] [-] hinkley|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pengaru|5 years ago|reply
Even with the auto-darkening window the field of view is substantially reduced.
I wonder if in the future welding masks will integrate fire alarms.
[+] [-] rlonstein|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway0a5e|5 years ago|reply
For every hour that someone has an arc struck there's a battery sitting on a charger for an order of magnitude more hours.
[+] [-] lostlogin|5 years ago|reply
Setting fire to ones own clothes is surprisingly easy with a grinder, and when you’re up a ladder that’s particularly bad.
[+] [-] akira2501|5 years ago|reply
I always remember the Imperial Sugar Factory. _Dust_ is enough. Sugar dust is violently explosive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg7mLSG-Yws
[+] [-] imglorp|5 years ago|reply
Groan. I (novice) lit my Xterra on fire while welding on the wheel well. I was going at it and then heard that "whoomph" you never want to hear, and thick white smoke started coming from under the dash. Taking a chance, I ran to grab a small fire extinguisher, pointed it up under the dash, and emptied it. The cabin was full of that nasty powder but the fire stopped, and I never did find what was on fire. All the wiring seemed to work by some miracle. But yeah, that could easily have taken the house with it. Definitely know what's behind the weld.
[+] [-] Florin_Andrei|5 years ago|reply
I see now. The other two were obvious, but roof work seemed counter-intuitive. But if epoxy is used in the process, then yeah, I totally see that. I ended up with a garage full of smoke a couple times from working with more resin than I really needed for my projects.
[+] [-] skwb|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rectang|5 years ago|reply
The real question is, why were the explosives there?
But pursuing that question might make powerful people uncomfortable, or lead to less satisfying conclusions about institutions deliberately designed to disperse accountability.
[+] [-] mabbo|5 years ago|reply
That sentence is nearly unbelievable, like something from a cartoon show. How much incompetence can you layer upon further incompetence to reach this insane level of danger?
[+] [-] Johnny555|5 years ago|reply
Seems a little unfair to blame this solely on welders -- the root cause was whoever decided it was a good idea to store 2700 tons of explosive fertilizer so close to a city.
Secondary is whoever decided it was a good idea to store fireworks in the warehouse that stored this explosive fertilizer.
Last on the list is the welders that were told to work on this door near the fireworks and fertilizer.
[+] [-] FillardMillmore|5 years ago|reply
I'm not the conspiratorial type, but it really does seem like there's some other information that we're not getting.
[+] [-] DC-3|5 years ago|reply
https://i.imgur.com/1GkJgxt.png
[+] [-] rmason|5 years ago|reply
No one could purchase it (even before Oklahoma City) without us knowing them. After Oklahoma City some TV stations in Grand Rapids sent reporters undercover trying to make purchases and they failed.
You need either dynamite or a substantial amount of heat to cause ammonium nitrate to explode. My boss tried to create a farm pond with it and his initial attempt failed. He failed to use enough dynamite ;<).
Personally I'd nominate the Beirut Port Authority for a Darwin award. Without the fireworks being stored in the building the welders sparks wouldn't have caused the explosion.
[+] [-] myth_buster|5 years ago|reply
Welder's nationality doesn't seem to me a relevant info to be included in a postmortem.
[+] [-] tunesmith|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] azureel|5 years ago|reply
Lebanon is in severe economic crisis. And that effects everything, especially government spending.
You say, "a demo expert should oversee storage of these stuff appropriately", well that means hiring an expert. Or "use a professional repair crew"; that means protective gear, removal of explosives around, special cold-welding equipment; and all these require budget.
Hiring 2 immigrant welders for a week = 200 dollars (and I’m being extremely generous here). Versus taking all the security measures and use protective gear to do things right = 20.000 dollars.
I believe there are more and more bad things on the way for Lebanon. A major electricity outage, or a leak in a chemical plant, or a bridge collapsing... All due to maintenance problems, might be just around the corner.
[+] [-] duxup|5 years ago|reply
Whose job is it to check the site come up with a safe plan where / before the welders work?
Maybe the welders should have known better, but there needs to be more between total disaster and welding than just some guys with welding tools who probably have little power to say no without consequences ...
[+] [-] hprotagonist|5 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Boston_Brownstone_fire I hadn't seen a fire go to 9 alarms before this one.
[+] [-] fhub|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SkyMarshal|5 years ago|reply
Oh wow, I was wondering what the white-ish sparkles were just prior to the explosion. It was the fireworks cache going off, which then ignited the 2750 tons of Ammonium Nitrate.
That's an immense amount of Ammonium Nitrate. I suspect one outcome of this will be a new ordinance/law will that disallow such large caches of explosive material from being stored in the same place. Rather it will have to be divvied up and distributed to holding facilities out of blast range of each other.
[+] [-] bichiliad|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chromaton|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deadalus|5 years ago|reply
https://archive.is/vSiKi
and
https://web.archive.org/web/20200814174018/https://www.marit...
[+] [-] matt-attack|5 years ago|reply
Not to be callous to the incredible tragedy at play, but I simply find this video to be mesmerizing in its quality and potency.
In America we’re born and raised on countless explosions in pop culture whether it’s a Hollywood or gaming. They’re to the point of being so utterly mundane that it’s rare for Hollywood to wow an audience with a mere explosion anymore (though I could certainly name some memorable ones from over the years). We all now think we know what they look like in urban environments, and have for the last 30 years of high quality special effects. But. This video is real. And the details and nuances at play have simply never been depicted in film or tv before. To see the physics at play is simply mind boggling to me. I’d love to read a frame by frame account by a true expert of this 4K video.