Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Beirut ammonium nitrate (?) explosion?

Via the New York Times:
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The blasts came within seconds of each other. 
First, an explosion in Beirut’s port, possibly from a fireworks warehouse, sent a plume of smoke billowing over the capital skyline early Tuesday evening. 
Then a much larger explosion from a building nearby shot a chrysanthemum of orange and red smoke into the air followed by a massive shock wave of whitish dust and debris that rose hundreds of feet and spread out for blocks. 
The seaside capital rocked like an earthquake. Cars tumbled upside down and bricks rained down from apartment buildings. Glass flew out of windows miles away and roofs collapsed...
According to some reports, there were 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate in the warehouse. If you haven't seen some of the video, it's pretty remarkable.

(Pretty clear to me that governments should attempt to track and regulate storage of ammonium nitrate, but that seems like something that would be difficult to administer and would end up neglected.) 

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