r/interesting • u/Appropriate-Eye-1227 • Aug 04 '26
HISTORY Today marks 6 years of the 'Beirut Explosion' that is considered one of the most powerful artificial non-nuclear explosions in history. It was equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT, caused 218 fatalities and US$15 billion in property damage
4 August 2020, a major explosion occurred in Beirut, Lebanon, caused by the ignition of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. The chemical, confiscated in 2014 from the cargo ship MV Rhosus and stored at the Port of Beirut without adequate safety measures for six years, detonated after a fire broke out in a nearby warehouse. The explosion resulted in at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and approximately 300,000 displaced people, alongside property damage estimated at US$15 billion. The blast released energy comparable to 1.1 kilotons of TNT, ranking it among the most powerful non-nuclear explosions ever recorded and the largest single detonation of ammonium nitrate.
The explosion generated a seismic event measuring 3.3 in magnitude, as reported by the United States Geological Survey. Its effects were felt in Lebanon and neighbouring regions, including Syria, Israel, and Cyprus, over 240 km (150 mi) away. Scientific studies noted that the shockwave temporarily disrupted Earth's ionosphere. Adjacent grain silos at the Port of Beirut sustained major damage. In July and August 2022, two years after the explosion, portions of the silos collapsed following fires caused by remaining grain stocks.
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u/BryceDL Aug 04 '26
This is one of the most unbelievable things caught on film plus you have to remember 2020 was such a crazy year with everything, this just piled on to the feeling like the world was going to end.
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u/Sunnyday1775 Aug 04 '26
2020 feels like 15 years ago
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u/Ok_Remote_31 Aug 04 '26
Hell..last year feels like a decade ago...🥲
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u/meepein Aug 04 '26
Last week feels like at least 6 months ago.
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u/thelastsamuraiii Aug 04 '26
Yesterday feels like 24 hrs ago
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u/jack198820 Aug 04 '26
Man what a wild ride yesterday was. Memories made for at least the next 36 hours.
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u/Raging_Mullet Aug 04 '26
Today feels like tomorrow.
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u/Silver-Amphibian7650 Aug 04 '26
Today is only yesterday's tomorrow.
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u/Ok-Pomegranate858 Aug 04 '26
Hey hey, ease up the the throttle there... not everyone is as young as you guys to be able to afford a decade a year.
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u/CreamPuzzleheaded300 Aug 04 '26
Seriously, I read title saying 6 years ago and I said to myself "I swear it was in 2015.. "
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u/hennabeak Aug 04 '26
15 years ago? Do you mean 1995?
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u/JohannesJoshua Aug 04 '26
To me the Beirut explosions feels like it happened 2-3 years ago, not 6.
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u/Dry_Departure_7813 Aug 04 '26
Remember when 2020 started with Aussie wildfires and everyone thought that was going to be a big deal.
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u/TenshiS Aug 04 '26
The real world did end in 2020...
Now we have whatever this is.
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u/Glum_Judgment6232 Aug 04 '26
2001 and 2008 were big milestones in things going to shit as well
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u/Almarma Aug 04 '26
For me, specially 2008: the year thieves in Wall Street and banks around the world were caught cheating, a few went to jail, they rescued their own failed system, and kept on stealing and accumulating wealth and power, together with tech giants, big pharma and oil moguls.
And while all of this happens, we keep on blaming immigrants and the other party about our problems and lack of money for services, while they keep on accumulating without paying taxes, controlling our lives, provoking wars, etc.
This is not a left vs right problem this planet has. It’s a up vs down one.
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u/comethefaround Aug 04 '26
2008 was when capatilism died. They're doing it again right now with these data center financing schemes.
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u/atomcplayboy86 Aug 04 '26
After the zombie apocalypse, most people are zombies!
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u/LeftHand_PimpSlap Aug 04 '26
I'd be fine with a zombie apocalypse as opposed to whatever this is we're living in. I can't use my machete now but again a zombie onslaught...
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u/Friendly-Example-701 Aug 04 '26
Yes Covid sucked for real
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u/CorruptDaemon404 Aug 04 '26
I'm one of the few that enjoyed those COVID days
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u/Last-Quarter-432 Aug 04 '26
Not having to go out and spending all day every day with my dog is all I could ever ask for.
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u/CorruptDaemon404 Aug 04 '26
A dream come true for an introvert
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u/megaholt2 Aug 04 '26
I am an introvert, but I made the critical error of starting a new job in January 2020…as an ICU nurse.
It was not my best decision in life.
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u/2mato_soup Aug 04 '26
Wow. On behalf of everyone you cared for, thank you. 🩷
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u/megaholt2 Aug 04 '26
You’re welcome? I have a specific skill set that was in high demand for quite some time during the early part of this decade; I couldn’t sit idly by and do nothing while people suffered, even though it was beyond difficult.
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u/Jamator01 Aug 04 '26
This reads like you can smell cancer or something...
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u/megaholt2 Aug 05 '26
Not cancer, but wounds that are causing sepsis often have a distinct scent!
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u/pipnina Aug 04 '26
It really was the class divide between blue and white collar workers.
Blue collar workers were "essential" and continued "as normal" except with loads of shit in the way like trying to wear safety glasses while using a COVID mask, being on the front line of the plague, having to use public transport still to get to work etc.
Meanwhile white collars got to go home and sit with a laptop in the sun. My dad stayed home longer than most because he was classed as vulnerable. Spent the entirety of the 2020 summer doing meetings in a garden chair while I was stuck doing apprenticeship work, and during lockdowns in 2021 he was doing the same except I was in dank holes all day. Or earlier in the year, he was working at home and I was literally sat in a -3c dead ship for 8 hours with no sunlight until the weekend because of how north we are.
Two classes of people that previously weren't so different turned into a massive split overnight
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u/OfficiallyJoeBiden Aug 04 '26
I remember collecting unemployment & not having to work was so fire
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u/MrBwnrrific Aug 04 '26
I enjoyed it quite a bit. I realized I was bisexual with a friend while we were enjoying sheltering-in-place and collecting unemployment together. We’re now engaged and have been together for 5 years.
So I understand the guilt of thinking “Ah, those were the days” during an objectively terrible time for most other people
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u/not_the_chosen_onee Aug 04 '26
I honestly think that is the cutest "how we got together" story I've ever heard. I love that for you two.
I lived with my closest friend for a few months last year, and though we've always joked, we realised how perfect our lives would be if we were actually lesbians.
As a fellow introvert, the idea of falling in love while collecting unemployment yet never having to leave the house sounds like an absolute dream. Kudos to both of you!!
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u/HarbingerOfRot777 Aug 04 '26
Covid years were genuinely my best years. I'm an introvert, so isolation felt great but that wasn't why they were my best years.
Since there was nothing to do because we weren't allowed to leave the house, i just said fuck it, lost 40 kilo's and went from obese to my recommended weight in 8 months. I have never even attemped losing weight before, and i was 18 when the pandemic officially started. Then i also kicked meth and booze and nicotine to the curb.
Hypothetically, if there was a chance to go through quarantine again, without all the illness related deaths, and forcing more socially dependant people into house arrest, i would immediately go for it.
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u/Phil_Coffins_666 Aug 04 '26
Not gonna lie, current state of the world makes me yearn for the "simpler times" of COVID
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u/LLAPSpork Aug 04 '26
People upvoting this while forgetting the fact that many of us lost family and friends during this time. wtf guys 😖
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u/RemarkableCrows Aug 04 '26
Covid permanently disabled me but I guess I'm happy for the people who had fun baking bread :/
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u/Exatex Aug 04 '26
I think it was the turn where people already started noticing that things there going slowly to the worse economically but then could not deny it anymore.
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u/beyond1sgrasp Aug 04 '26
When you know what was going on it's even more crazy. Hezbollah wanted to use it to make modified explosives, but they didn't want it to show up in international terror systems. They were trying to extort the Lebanese government to get it into their country after the government decided to hold it. Hezbollah were trying take it from it's holding over the next 18 months, but the government didn't trust that they wouldn't use it to attack them.
Hezbollah's plan was using it to enforce their control against the lebanese government and to sell some of it to the members Associate with the TBA drug trafficking operation Hezbollah is operating through Ayman Saied Joumaa, Samir Rada, Assad Ahmad Barakat for example.
They have been trying to find ways to combat the Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Venezualan countries and take control of them similar as to what they've been doing in Lebanon.
People are far to friendly with Iran and Hezbollah and don't realize how much war is going on.
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u/Late-Union8706 Aug 04 '26
2020.............
One week it was the wild fires.
Next week the murder hornets.
Seemed like each week brought a new Headline that made us forget about last weeks major issue.
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u/Character-Shock1438 Aug 04 '26
Not to mention that we had major street marches against our government just a few months before the explosion hit. Streets we were protesting in were very close to where the blast happened and were actually the most affected by it. Also, the families if the martyrs have yet to get their closure on this matter, investigations are still ongoing and every year around this time a politician comes out and tells us that we will soon get justice. They are all corrupt and all implicit in what happened to our people.
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u/GreyAngy Aug 04 '26
I remember a grim joke about new Horsemen of the Apocalypse in 2020: American cop - War, Wuhan cook - Pestilence, Lebanon welder - Death.
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u/TheDayman_240 Aug 04 '26
I started my second job at Costco about 4 months before covid really kicked off here in the US. Fun times. Definitely made some good friendships through the bullshit, but wow that was an interesting time.
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u/Tasty_Philosopher904 Aug 04 '26
I can't believe this clip doesn't have the wedding photography part in it...
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u/Betancorea Aug 04 '26
And just 5 years prior to this, Tianjin in China had a similar ammonium nitrate explosion.
Felt like they were back to back events at the time because both were massive.
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u/DenKHK Aug 04 '26
The Tianjin one was tiny compared to this, about 1/3 to 1/4 the yield. But as you say, it was back to back (comparatively speaking) so it was still fresh in everyone's minds. The Halifax explosion was about 2x the Beirut one but it was a long time ago (1917) and there were, of course, no videos of the explosion, only photos of the aftermath. Imagine what that one was like then....
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u/Upstairs-Chicken592 Aug 04 '26
But there is a “heritage minute”
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u/DenKHK Aug 04 '26
Ok "no videos of the explosion as it happened, like this one"... clarified? :)
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u/1wife2dogs0kids Aug 04 '26
There's no videos of the explosion at Halifax.
Unlike the Beirut explosion, which has thousands of videos of it, before and after.
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u/AnHeroicHippo90 Aug 05 '26
To me the Tianjin explosion always seemed more intense, maybe because it was filmed at night, so the brightness of the fireball just whited the camera sensor out.
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u/CrystlBluePersuasion Aug 04 '26
I think it's about 3x based on KT payload, either way that's insane and seeing this explosion for comparison makes the Halifax explosion mind-boggling:
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u/Interesting-Agency-1 Aug 04 '26
Yeah, ive read plenty about the Halifax explosion, but couldnt picture it in my mind well. Imagining it as 3x the Beruit explosion actually put it all in perspective now, and holy fuck! It makes alot more sense now
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u/mostxclent Aug 04 '26
Even more Intersting about Halifax is what they discovered in the after math:
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u/VainAvatar Aug 05 '26
The fact that one of the ship ankors involved in the Halifax explosion was flown into the air and landed two miles away is insane.
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u/Hsabes01 Aug 04 '26
It's baffling to think Tianjin was tiny compared to this. The videos make it seem like hell on earth.
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u/ButterflySensitive32 Aug 04 '26
Not to mention, the day after the Halifax explosion, which killed 2000. Injured 9000, there was a blizzard.
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u/BisonThunderclap Aug 04 '26
The chain of disaster for Beruit was infuriating. The nitrate was confiscated from a rust bucket of a ship that was no longer seaworthy.
The nitrate sat seized in that warehouse for 7 years.
Customs officials sent multiple letters to the judge over several years warning of the danger and asking it to be sold or given to the armed forces to blow up. The letters went unread.
So one day some guys went to weld the warehouse door and caught a stash of fireworks next to the nitrate on fire. That's all it took.
Leveled the port, sunk ships, damaged and collapsed buildings, not to mention the dead.
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u/bruhhhhhhhhhhhh_h Aug 04 '26
This is not the whole or accurate truth. There's some journalists who've done a lot on this - many threatened therein:
https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/08/03/they-killed-us-inside/investigation-august-4-beirut-blast
Please, I understand it's maybe the story you've heard but...
"According to an unnamed security official quoted in the media, sparks from the welding started the fire that trigged the ammonium nitrate to ignite.[417] Other media reports suggest a fire started in hangar 9 and spread to hangar 12.[418] The proximate cause of the ignition is unknown and debated. In October 2020, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also reportedly did not come to a firm conclusion about what caused the blast.[419]"
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u/AllCity04 Aug 04 '26
Sounds like a comedy script. A shipload of nitrate next to some fireworks sitting beside a door that a guy is going to start welding. Unbelievable.
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u/Truestoryfriend Aug 08 '26
This was all theatre, this was all supplied intentionally by Russia to hezbollah to be used in ieds and homemade rockets. It’s infuriating that people believe this thin ass cover story, when you trace it all back it becomes super obvious what was going on
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u/Bythion Aug 04 '26
My mind always goes back to that fireball explosion in China. It seemed so otherworldly, like the world was ending.
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u/Status_Car8495 Aug 04 '26
And the AZF plant in Toulouse, France, killed 31, shattered 2/3rd of the city's windows and occured only 12 days after 9/11, making a whole bunch of people thinking that it was a terrorist act at first.
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u/variablenyne Aug 04 '26
There was a video somewhere where surgeons were in the middle of a procedure and the explosion happened and they just had to keep doing the procedure
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u/RobertoGuerra Aug 04 '26
Also remember one of a bride during a photo shoot ending up running for cover.
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u/TreeFiddy198 Aug 04 '26
My wife was visiting her parents in the town of zouk mosbeh about 30 minutes drive from the port explosion. She said they felt their windows shake and the building rumble. Scared the fuck out of everyone.
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u/Projkt88 Aug 04 '26
Yeah I live there; was on a Zoom call with my now-fiancée and got pushed back by the sheer force of the explosion. The bang was so loud that I told her that something exploded on our street.
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u/DarkSolstace Aug 04 '26
Fun fact: her name is Israa Seblani she’s a doctor and rushed to help the injured as soon as they knew they were safe.
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u/WarthogConfident7809 Aug 05 '26
The bride hated it but the groom thought it was epic. He showed that video to everyone, i assure you.
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u/Chalupa_89 Aug 04 '26
For me the craziest video is the jetsky on that is in the OP compilation, just because the explosion was so close and they made the right call to dive underwater.
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u/Confident_Frogfish Aug 04 '26
I hope they're doing ok. I was thinking that sometimes it is worse in the water because water conducts the energy better, but perhaps when the explosion is not in the water it might be better? It feels like it should but I really don't know the physics of it.
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u/Chalupa_89 Aug 06 '26
Water is a non compressible fluid. So any explosion in the water hits harder. On the water. Not so much because the shockwave will travel the path of least resistance, and that is the air, not the water.
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u/MRV3N Aug 04 '26
Man I wonder what happened to everyone’s eardrums in here
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u/variablenyne Aug 04 '26
A significant amount of people had hearing damage.
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u/Sterek01 Aug 04 '26
WHAT DID YOU SAY.
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u/BaeyoBlackbeard Aug 04 '26
HE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT HEAT BANDAGES PURPLE MONKEY DISHWASHER.
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u/correct_eye_is Aug 04 '26
Last time this was posted it was said that the person in the 3rd video from street level died there.
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u/jundraptor Aug 04 '26
This won't be useful to 99.99999% of people but in case of ground level explosions, grenades, and such, the best way to survive is to immediately dive to the ground facing away from the blast with your legs together.
If you're in the kill radius of the blast you're dead either way. And if you're far enough then you're probably safe even if the shockwave hits you. But if you're in the casualty radius, running away for the 1 second you get won't make any difference at all.
Dropping to the ground minimizes the area the blast/shrapnel can hit, anything that does hit you will hit you in the feet/legs first. Which is much more preferable than being hit directly in the head.
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u/kytheon Aug 04 '26
Quick reminder that "facing away" means pointing your butt towards the explosion. That's where the "legs together" part becomes crucial.
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u/PerryVegas Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
I was a teenager in Las Vegas when the PEPCON explosion happened in 1988. I was in class when the first blast rattled the building and we all went outside to investigate. We thought it was a dumpster fire behind the building across the street due to perspective.
Suddenly, there was a faint hissing in the distance that kept growing louder by the second. It was the sound of the 2nd explosion’s shockwave approaching. I was located 10 miles away, yet that shockwave threw us all present to the ground as it ripped right past us. I ended face down with my legs pointed towards the explosion just as described here.
Unforgettable experience.
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u/rab2bar Aug 05 '26
i was in brooklyn to witness some old gas tanks getting imploded in 2001 or so. it was a controlled event, but even that shockwave was surreal
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u/Exciteable_Cocnut Aug 04 '26
and if you cover your ears make sure to open your mouth. i read if you cover your ears it makes like negative pressure and will explode your ear drums even worse… unless your mouth is open.
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u/Kanarakettii Aug 04 '26
I met a Lebanese guy in Bangkok that is completely deaf due to this explosion. He was with a few other people part of the deaf community that helped translate for me, dude told me he still suffers with extreme depression because of it and now travels the world trying to get away from his thoughts.
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u/rourou01060713 Aug 04 '26
still have hearing problems til today and im only 21 :)
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u/RudeNewYorker Aug 04 '26
That guy was smart jumping into the water immediately.
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u/Wsswaas Aug 04 '26
He was cursing at the start then said "salma(female name) jump jump" good thinking!
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u/TorpidPulsar Aug 04 '26
The one guy in Lebanon who realized windows and shockwaves don't mix.
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u/alabamdiego Aug 04 '26
I will never not be impressed with the quick thinking of the person on the jet ski diving into the water
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u/instantcameracat Aug 04 '26
Why is jumping into the water a good idea?
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u/Difficult_Jacket8700 Aug 04 '26
The water surface acted as a barrier for the Shockwave. If on the other hand the explosion had been underwater and he had done the same, he would probably have died.
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u/Spook_485 Aug 04 '26
He is too far away. His ear drums would not have even ruptured at that distance. His jump saved him from some ringing in the ears for sure though.
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u/ChadUSECoperator Aug 04 '26
Don't forget about the shrapnel. There were a lot of metal chunks flying in all directions. Getting in the water (and behind the jetski) was the wisest decision.
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u/wondersinsepia Aug 04 '26
Shockwaves don't travel between mediums really well. If the explosion starts on land, it won't have as much of an impact in the water, and viceversa
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u/MrMeowPantz Aug 04 '26
Water insulates you from sound and also everything in the air from the explosion, glass, wood, metal, is less likely to end in the ocean, below ground level, than where he was sitting. God knows what could have hit him had he not gone 10 feet lower than surface level.
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u/sidhsinnsear Aug 04 '26
I will never forget the video of that poor bride ans groom doing wedding shots when this happened. What a thing to happen on your wedding day.
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u/Leif2000 Aug 04 '26
is there a link?
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u/sidhsinnsear Aug 04 '26
It won't let me link it, just google bride and groom beirut explosion and it is the first video
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Aug 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/GuyLivingPlaces Aug 04 '26
This is a very detailed breakdown by Forensic Architecture
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u/Substantial-Sector60 Aug 04 '26
That is a fantastic analysis.
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u/Mdriver127 Aug 04 '26
Gonna be honest, I could only make it halfway through that, but it was indeed a fantastic enough analysis still.
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u/404MoralsNotFound Aug 04 '26
Great video but damn, made me so anxious watching some of those fire brigade up front footages. RIP.
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u/YouMadThough Aug 04 '26
Huh? How did you live thru this timeline and know what happened, without having seen a single video? The videos WERE the news of the event.
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u/Sirius-Face Aug 04 '26
Jesus Christ no matter how many times I see this video, it's always horrifying.
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u/lb3a3 Aug 04 '26
Right at 1:04, buildings look like they get vaporized
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u/karabuka Aug 04 '26
What about a hole in the middle of the port which is still there https://maps.app.goo.gl/W1Fz7akVAuMHR6Mj7
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u/ReaperTys Aug 04 '26
Six years? Jesus, I thought it was two years ago max. So much has happened since then…
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u/madtowntripper Aug 04 '26
I was dumbfounded it’s been that long.
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u/InFromTheSouth Aug 04 '26
I was on the same wavelength as jetski guy. 100% going underwater and hoping. Recognition to reaction time felt the same
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u/Rockin-Moroccan Aug 04 '26
The Beirut explosion was the catastrophic result of years of institutional negligence: multiple Lebanese officials, government agencies, port authorities, and security services knew about the massive stockpile of ammonium nitrate, had been warned of its dangers, and repeatedly failed to act. It wasn't simply an accident—it was a devastating chain of warnings ignored, responsibilities passed around, and accountability avoided.
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u/aasfourasfar Aug 04 '26
Also important to mention that the port was under Hezbollah control. So it's not normal Lebanese negligence, but a case where it was exacerbated by the state inside the state
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u/Radioactivocalypse Aug 04 '26
This is why you do health and safety inspections and have to store and label explosives and combustible materials correctly.
If I remember correctly, they just piled up warehouses of potentially explosive materials. Literally a ticking time bomb
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u/IronSkywalker Aug 04 '26
Flogging a dead horse trying to implement any sort of h&s in places where there is absolutely no culture for it, unfortunately.
I worked on a project in the UK with Italian staff and even that was impossible
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u/troofyp Aug 04 '26
Whenever I see footage I always think about The number of people that had their hearing permanently ruined in that day. I wonder if I would have the reaction time to plug my ears and duck/cover before glass and boom caught up w me.
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Aug 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BasicMatter7339 Aug 04 '26
Its not the biggest, its one of the biggest
The halifax explosion in 1917 is still the biggest, 2.9 kilotons, thats twice the beirut explosion ~1.1-1.5 kilotons.
The halifax explosion happened when two ships, one carrying wartime munitions collided and exploded. It levelled everything within a half a mile radius and killed around 1800 people
Beirut explosion was around ~1.1-1.5 kilotons, caused by a fire that ignited a storage warehouse full of ammonium nitrate, destroying everything within ~400 ft and killed about 200 people
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u/Papercutter0324 Aug 04 '26
As someone from Halifax, I really hope no one ever takes this record from us. There's enough shit going on in the world; no one should ever have to suffer from this sort of event.
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u/Sitka_8675309 Aug 04 '26
Boston here. Thank you for the Christmas tree.
ETA: Boston sent help to Halifax in 1917. Now Halifax provides Boston with the city’s official Christmas tree every year as a thank-you.
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u/DocMillion Aug 04 '26
That was an interesting read, thanks. Never heard about this before. The heroic rail dispatcher sending that last minute telegram was a great human story
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u/fixermark Aug 04 '26
This event led to the Halifax School for the Blind.
Because one of the ships was on fire for quite some time, people were standing at their windows watching it when the detonation occurred.
There were between 500 and 1,000 traumatic eye injuries recorded.
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u/madtowntripper Aug 04 '26
Man-made. Tunguska way bigger.
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u/myarseisbig Aug 04 '26
Isreal probably cause the same damage daily.
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u/KetordinaryDay Aug 05 '26
100%. Even worse now because they are making sure the bombed lands can't grow anything anymore for decades to come.
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u/Juniper-wool Aug 04 '26
Does anyone know how this explosion compares to the Halifax explosion? They were both insanely huge, but which one was bigger?
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u/DenKHK Aug 04 '26
Halifax actually. About twice this, but no videos, only photos of the aftermath. So imagine what it must have been like...
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u/TekkelOZ Aug 04 '26
Enschede was bigger too; 2 (to possibly 4) Kilotons. The Netherlands May 2000. Plenty of videos kn Youtube. People were more curious than afraid.
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u/RealBigDickBrannigan Aug 04 '26
The Wiki entry says the final explosion was 4-5 tons, not kilotons?
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u/NukaClipse Aug 04 '26
I've watched these videos a lot but I never seen some of the ones in this video before. Still crazy to watch.
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u/Angerberries Aug 04 '26
First time I'm seeing some of these angles. It's much worse than I remember! Wild
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u/ThanksALotBud Aug 04 '26
There is one particular clip that still haunts me about that day. A bride having a photo shoot in the streets. She looks absolutely gorgeous in her dress and then she hears something and you can see the fear in her eyes right before the Shockwave hits.
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Aug 04 '26
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u/Washpedantic Aug 04 '26
The smoke cloud from the fire and the location it was coming from was significant enough to draw people's attention.
People filming stuff that's on fire in their neighborhood is quite common. and it is one of those things If there wasn't such a big fucking explosion, those videos would be there on their facebook and only shared by like half a dozen people each.
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u/PurpleSquare713 Aug 04 '26
I remember there was a video of a bride-to-be taking glamour shots somewhere in the city. It goes as you would expect then... BANG! Chaos everywhere.
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u/Hilsam_Adent Aug 04 '26
A lot of the early footage I saw was typical influencer/Internet narcissism shit: people videoing their breakfasts, one was filming a lobby in a swanky building, etc.
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u/arached Aug 04 '26
There was a small explosion and the fire seen in the videos before the big one and alot of fireworks caughting fire. That's why alot of people was observing and filming what's happening before the bog explosion.
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u/BKemperor Aug 04 '26
First, it seemed like just some fireworks were set on fire in some storage, so people were recording not knowing what was about to happen. The whole city shook later, felt like my whole building was about to collapse and I'm a good 10 minute drive away from it
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u/clandistic Aug 04 '26
How close was this to a nuclear explosion?
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u/Pixel91 Aug 04 '26
Not really a viable comparison.
Nuclear explosions have varying yields. The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were about ten times the blast yield of this.
Modern tactical warheads can be tuned down to have even lower yield than this.
The destruction still isn't comparable, as nukes are airbust, they detonate above ground to maximize blast effect and minimize contaminated soil being thrown into the atmosphere. And with the Beirut detonation in particular, the grain silo next to the warehouse facetanked a LOT of the blast in at least one direction, this could've been a lot worse.
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u/ThanksALotBud Aug 04 '26
Based on the explosive radius or the nuclear fall out?
The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was minimum 10 times more destructive not counting the radiation.
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u/InteractionSoft14 Aug 04 '26
Not even close. The bomb that fell on Hiroshima was 15 times bigger. And that is considered a small nuke. Hydrogen bombs are hundreds of times bigger
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u/jessjess890 Aug 04 '26
I know a lot of people died in that explosion but the story of the Australian toddler who was killed, and his parents’ desperate attempts to save him, never left me.
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u/NiklausMikhail Aug 04 '26
A couple of this people knew exactly what to when they're too close to an explosion like this, you don't run, you look for cover or simply duck on the floor and cover yourself, they guy on the jet ski did the smart move right there, going under water
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u/RIPRIF20 Aug 07 '26
I work in import and chemical sales. The safety requirements for a single container (about 20ton) of Ammonium Nitrate are so strict, we stopped even handling it. The fact they had 2,750 just sitting in a warehouse forgotten is just.....well....it's this event. This is even was inevitable.
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u/abdullahleboucher Aug 04 '26
"Only" 218 casualties is surprisingly low