Thanks for watching, check out me other bits! Outro song: kzitem.info/news/bejne/14eOvJ-HcHagmnY Instagram: instagram.com/plainly.john/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/Plainlydifficult Merch: plainly-difficult.creator-spring.com Twitter:twitter.com/Plainly_D
@darthkarl99
Жыл бұрын
I suspect the grain Silo played a huge role in how low the casualties where, that and the time of the explosion. The cruise ship was all but empty and as i recall the grain Silos took a lot o the force out the explosion on the cityward side. You should cover the big explosion at the first Hauber Process plant in Germany in the 1930's. They where using Dynamite to break up large solid piles of mixed Ammonium Nitrate and Potassium Nitrate. Worked fine in tests, and repeatedly in actual use, until of course the time it didn't.
@privatesgooglekonto7638
Жыл бұрын
Is that woman from the beginning alright?
@nicolasnicolas3889
Жыл бұрын
Ammonium nitrate??? You are clueless.....🤣 stop reading The Beano or the New World Order comic.....time to grow up.....
@fredashay
Жыл бұрын
Wait! Is Terek Vital a vulcan at 10:31 ???
@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307
Жыл бұрын
Its pretty simple pile up a HUGE amount of highly volatile explosive stuff (ignoring all the safety standards) then wait for a little flame!
@NateDates
Жыл бұрын
The amount of angles this was recorded on is wild, Probably the most recorded explosion that devastated a city.
@neuralmute
Жыл бұрын
As fascinating as all the dashcam footage of the Chelyabinsk meteor!
@tuvelat7302
Жыл бұрын
Probably the best documented major explosion ever.
@darwinjina
Жыл бұрын
the explosions in the chinese city import/export storage was spectacular as well
@Oleandra-13
Жыл бұрын
@@darwinjinaThe Tianjin Explosions, right? That shit was insane. Edit: Dyslexia attack! City name corrected.
@darwinjina
Жыл бұрын
@@Oleandra-13 yes, thank you, I think I was thinking of that one.
@b1646717
Жыл бұрын
I'm a miner who is around ANFO every day. We buy it by the semi truck loads. We are required to park that trailer in a pit 4 or 5 stories deep, so a blast wave would go up, not out. It is also several hundred yards from anything else on property and several thousand from any homes. I can't imagine a warehouse full of it in a crowded area.
@preauxtip
Жыл бұрын
I'd imagine you also don't store it with a semi truck full of fireworks in the same pit
@murphychurch8251
Жыл бұрын
And fireworks right next to it, then wielding work...just the many layers of NOOO 🤦♀️
@gnarthdarkanen7464
Жыл бұрын
@@tripplefives1402 It was also an industrial warehouse, frequently used as a "stash house" for confiscated goods and cargo, so there were other things from solvents and fuels (like propane canisters) to spray paint and lacquer thinner (alcohol) stockpiled there as well... It was more or less a timebomb even before the Nitrate got there. Fireworks are notorious for slews of negligence and injuries or damages around the world every year, but nitrate is mostly oxidizer and requires fuel... while black powder (popular in fireworks) is already a mix of fuel and oxidizer... The negligent containment and half-assery around all the collective fuels, solvents, and other various hydrocarbons is what fed the nitrate to make that explosion as big as it became. ;o)
@gnarthdarkanen7464
Жыл бұрын
@@tripplefives1402 The unfortunate operative term there is USUALLY... SO firstly, as country born and raised, I've seen a few too many minor incidents that resulted in tractors overturned, farmhands losing limbs, and other various "minor spats" of general mayhem to completely agree... ...AND before you go defaming the "uneducated bumpkins" who do this work, I'll assure you that we KNOW what ANFO is and mix it on purpose and ONLY on purpose when we've determined it necessary. The damn stuff is DANGEROUS. The egg-heads and squints will tell you that it only decomposes around 400 F, but I can assure you that I've watched the prill deteriorate to liquid and out-gas (obvious signs of decomp', at temperatures in the 90's... SO don't bet your life on what the egg-heads and squints tell you. The problem with storing AN in the same industrial warehouse as the fireworks, the propane canisters, and the spray paint by the pallet isn't that they shared a shelter. It's that they were just rough-stacked relatively "willy-nilly" just anywhere they could find space to pile the stuff. There simply isn't enough plastic in a 90 pound sack of AN to provide the fuel constituent for a proportionately explosive burn-rate. You need something on the order of 1.5 parts fuel to 1 part oxidizer or even a 2 or 3 to 1 mix... and a 6 mil bag wrapping 90 pounds of oxidizer can't possibly melt down to provide even close to that, EVEN if you figure the shrink-wrap used to bind the bags together on pallets (IF that's how they were stacked and stowed in the first place)... With exploding fireworks in the same warehouse as a smallish mountain of FUELs from propane to di-ethyl ether, it's not a huge wonder how stuff got knocked over and kicked around until somewhere a mix was happening "by chaos theory" alone... and with the first "major" explosion to further that chaos, the rest was probably both mixed AND aerated in the otherwise partially enclosed and heated space of the warehouse being peeled apart... and upon reaching a "perfect mix" of oxidizer and aerated fuel, the aggression of the burn exponentiated to the second, MUCH LARGER explosion... Even as rocket science goes, this isn't terribly complicated. I'm well aware of what it takes to get ammonium nitrate to "runaway" and I'm equally aware of how to get an explosion out of it... USUALLY that requires a lot of heat and at LEAST a partially contained burn-off to add pressure... BUT there are times where it's already approaching a slow cook-off (such as a humid warehouse in Beirut in Summertime heat) and that margin is a LOT narrower... especially when one considered the utter flammability of just about everything else laying around that warehouse. It wasn't originally just littering the floor, but you ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES store a known powerful oxidizer next to a known "low temperature fuel source" without strict barriers and distances between them. AND this is what happens when you "flirt" with the idea. ;o)
@MrDino1953
Жыл бұрын
@@gnarthdarkanen7464- your ratio of 1.5 parts fuel to 1 part oxidizer (ammonium nitrate) is total nonsense. Try asking an egg-head or squint for the correct stoichiometric ratio.
@Truckngirl
Жыл бұрын
I went to Google Maps after watching this episode. Most of the Street View is from August 2020, but it's definitely pre explosion. Lebanon's economy, as you mentioned, was horrifically disabled. Imagine ATM's simultaneously closing nationwide. Even people who previously lived a comfortable middle class life became desperate. You did well with this story, John.
@kenosabi
Жыл бұрын
Yep. People holding up banks and just demanding their OWN money. A truly desperate situation.
@UncleKennysPlace
Жыл бұрын
On Google Earth you can toggle between the pre- and post-explosion images. It is striking the difference.
@RHR-221b
Жыл бұрын
@@UncleKennysPlace The free app *Wayback Machine* might add to your searching. Over 818 Billion items of archival material, including YT videos, etc., etc. Please note: I am not affiliated to *Wayback Machine.* Stay free. R 👋 🕊
@TymexComputing
Жыл бұрын
They were planning to rebuild city anyway
@masterhacker7065
Жыл бұрын
most places are so screwed by the economy that they dont even accept the Lebanese currency and instead take euros or mainly USD
@petrmaly9087
Жыл бұрын
I'm Czech, so I noticed the grain silo that survived the blast thus shielding a large part of the city from the blast. It was build by a Czechoslovak company, the foundations were almost 20 meters deep.Same design like the others here. Similar to the Hiroshima building (now memorial) that survived the nuclear blast, also built by a Czech architect. And there is a famous WWII bunker in Czechoslovak borderlands that the nazis after the capture tried to blow up right in front of Hitler. They packed it with explosives, ignited it, it flew into the air and undamaged fell back on the ground, where it lies to this day. Sometimes being paranoid and using enormous amounts of concrete for your buildings is worth it.
@markr.devereux3385
Жыл бұрын
Very interesting comment. KZitem seems to have the .most intelligent comments of any social media.
@petrmaly9087
Жыл бұрын
@@markr.devereux3385 I talked about the grain silo with my father-in-law who used to work in an agricultural coop and supplied a silo of the same type. The foundations were 19 meters deep on relatively strong surface and when the silo was constructed and filled, it sank additional meter into the ground. It was designed to do so. Those things were made to last.
@markr.devereux3385
Жыл бұрын
@@petrmaly9087 I guess the weight of the bulk grain is tremendous but 19 meters is a helluva footing.
@LordTutTut
Жыл бұрын
This comment led me down a rabbit hole of Czech construction. The commitment to durability is commendable in a world where price usually reigns supreme. Love the story about the bunker!
@petrmaly9087
Жыл бұрын
@@markr.devereux3385 It's a lot, but these buildings are huge. On a picture, it doesn't seem so huge, but if you are standing in front of it, you realise the foundations are probably necessary. Just to compare, this one upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Silo_Blovice_od_%C5%BEelezni%C4%8Dn%C3%ADho_p%C5%99ejezdu.jpg/800px-Silo_Blovice_od_%C5%BEelezni%C4%8Dn%C3%ADho_p%C5%99ejezdu.jpg has less than 10 meters deep foundations and the building is enormous.
@almerindaromeira8352
Жыл бұрын
This is one of my biggest concerns as a firefighter in Hamburg, Germany. Our station is very very close to the harbour (top 3 largest in Europe) and we get called there a lot. Yes, the safety standards are better here, but there is still a huge discrepancy between what it should be and what is actually practiced. It's an awful way to go. One doesn't stand a chance.
@BandanaBoris
Жыл бұрын
Are there any storage areas for hazardous materials like ammonium nitrate there? Guess the Bille Fire was suspected to be really dangerous as well
@almerindaromeira8352
Жыл бұрын
@@BandanaBoris there are. The warehouses themselves are not really that big individually, but the amount of ammonium nitrate moved every month is definitely higher than the 2750 tonnes of Beirut. The amounts stored are undisclosed. The fire in the Billstraße didn't shock me much. The biggest concern was a leak of hydrogen sulphide, hence the mask filters seen in every photo. Otherwise it was just a big conventional industrial fire.
@leechowning2712
Жыл бұрын
I am going to hope your port has worked with your department. Last week we had 2 firemen killed here in New Jersey because we had a fire aboard a RORO car carrier.
@M16_Akula-III
Жыл бұрын
@@leechowning2712RIP. Goddamn.
@leechowning2712
Жыл бұрын
@@M16_Akula-III look up a channel called whats going on with shipping to see why I said what I did. The fire dept there, beside the 3rd largest port in the US, "had not trained for shipboard fires in the last 6 years, and had never looked at this sort of ship", even though it is a type which has had 2 other fires in US waters in the last 5 years.
@thinaphonpetsiri9907
Жыл бұрын
I couldn’t believe how it’s has been 3 years already. I remember watching the news in lockdown and was in shocked. Also, seeing the explosion in the clip posted by people who stayed in that city like one family in an apartment then the windows shattered with furniture flying is just downright terrifying.
@lost360p
Жыл бұрын
yeah, cant believe it was already that long ago
@danyoutube7491
10 ай бұрын
At the time I felt like it was a small taste of what it must be like to see a nuclear bomb going off in a city, bloody terrifying as you say.
@billb7876
10 ай бұрын
What is this lockdown crap you talk of? Surely you won't fall for that next time?
@AvoidTheCadaver
Жыл бұрын
one of many sad stories from this disaster came out not long after the explosion. One of the emergency workers at the port called her fiance and let him know that she was down at the port. Next thing he heard was calls for an evacuation in the back ground followed by silence. She was at ground zero so she was among all those emergency response teams who never made it out and probably was never found
@MarcelaElviraTimis
Жыл бұрын
Never found is a bit of an understatement here.
@athenaraines
Жыл бұрын
@@MarcelaElviraTimisAs morbid as it sounds, I highly doubt there was anything left to find.
@dh1380
Жыл бұрын
This was a highly publicised news story
@MarcelaElviraTimis
Жыл бұрын
@@athenaraines that's what I was hinting
@geigertec5921
Жыл бұрын
Probably turned into vapor from the heat, the center of the blast would have been several thosands of degrees.
@emileeweir7773
Жыл бұрын
Man. To have been the people on that video call and witness the explosion tear through the building while being unable to help. That had to have been absolutely devastating.
@operator8014
Жыл бұрын
Well, it IS Lebanon, this stuff isn't terribly alien to them.
@NathanSimonGottemer
Жыл бұрын
@@shane888davies6lmao so judgmental I think for the main victims - casualties of the explosion - it goes without saying, so they were just trying to highlight another angle that was maybe less looked at
@FranNyan
Жыл бұрын
@@shane888davies6 Because you can't have compassion for more than one person at the same time, apparently....
@emileeweir7773
Жыл бұрын
@shane888davies6 Disasters don't just impact the people hurt or killed. They impact those who witness it, too. Put it this way: I'm a Daytonian. I've lived in the Miami Valley all my life. I've never once been to Ned Peppers, but the Oregon District Shooting shook me to my core. I don't live in Beavercreek or Trotwood, but the cities have never looked the same since the Memorial Day Tornadoes, and I'm reminded of that night every time I pass through them. Heck, I may not have been at the base hospital, but I was on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base when the base went into lockdown for an "active shooter"; the only thing more terrifying than the shadows of armed security guards walking past the door was not knowing what was happening. Yes, I sympathize with the victims and their families. But remember that traumatic events don't just impact those directly hurt or killed - they impact the bystanders, too. How well would you sleep at night if you witnessed what was possibly someone's death and you couldn't do anything to help them?
@spyr0guy
Жыл бұрын
@@shane888davies6 I guess survivor's guilt isn't real?
@koffeekage
Жыл бұрын
You can hear him try to keep his composure when he talks about the totally ridiculous scenario of “hot work being done on a hangar with multiple tons of ammonium nitrate and fireworks.”
@scrambledmandible
Жыл бұрын
@@tk-lf1nypretty much the same thing yeah
@PMA65537
Жыл бұрын
It's like THE REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER which ends with pursuit of Clouseau into a firework warehouse.
@generalsweet8212
Жыл бұрын
It really does sound like the setup for a bad joke.
@Abrothers12
Жыл бұрын
Sounds like something out of the Angry Birds franchise
@BIOHAZARDRUSGaming
Жыл бұрын
The video of the woman filming part of her wedding video when the blast occurred was insane and absolutely spine-tingling. The fact that she then went on to save so many people while still in her wedding dress makes it such a larger-than-life fact
@hx0d
Жыл бұрын
I'm staying in Beirut currently. I had a walk around the port area and downtown just a few days ago now. While the majority of buildings have been repaired and cleaned, there is still quite a lot of damaged and seemingly abandoned buildings with shattered and broken windows as well as boarded up shops. However, even with such a tragedy, life is once again normal and booming here. The Lebanese are very resilient people as a local told us, his beach restaurant is fully packed everyday. It's almost as if nothing happened 3 years ago. There seriously is no other place on earth like this country, both negatively and positively.
@S1MH4CKR
Жыл бұрын
@cryptodragon7240 1 second ago I find it so annoying when people say things like "the Lebanese.or whatever people are resilient" as if other nations wouldn't pick up the pieces & rebuild. As if they are going to be like oh well let's just give up. Resilience is a human trait, what are you talking about?
@HamburgerAmy
Жыл бұрын
i live in oklahoma city, even today a walk around downtown will reveal scars of the April 19th 1995 bombing of the federal building on some the surrounding structures.
@nziom
Жыл бұрын
@@S1MH4CKR why does that annoy you it's a non problem
@wickedavatar4746
Жыл бұрын
@@S1MH4CKR no body says other nations aren't stop making this about yourself
@scottmccrea1873
Жыл бұрын
They've learned deal with disasters after thousands of years of them.
@gocelotspice5766
Жыл бұрын
I remember hearing about this back in 2020. The level of negligence shown by keeping FIREWORKS with ammonium nitrate
@rtqii
Жыл бұрын
I was following a social media contributor in Beirut when the explosion happened. She posted all kinds of photos of the damage, including photos of her wrecked apartment. The shock wave not only blew out all the windows, it cracked concrete load bearing walls, and ruptured her third floor patio. There were enormous economic problems afterwards, she could not get access to money.
@Artofficial1986
Жыл бұрын
🤣🤣
@rtqii
Жыл бұрын
@@Artofficial1986 You are demented.
@asukashinohara5604
Жыл бұрын
Does she still have the pictures up online?
@RipRLeeErmey
Жыл бұрын
@@Artofficial1986 Bro that's not funny, someone's house got clapped out by an explosion comparable to a high yield military grade bomb.
@canofham9760
Жыл бұрын
It reminds me of how the perception of war drastically changed when Vietnam became televised. Seeing this catastrophe from so many different perspectives is absolutely terrifying
@richardscathouse
Жыл бұрын
Why they won't let the Ukraine war be televised 😂😂
@71.218-westshed
Жыл бұрын
@@richardscathouse Are you talking about not televised in Russia or the USA?
@EmyrDerfel
Жыл бұрын
@@richardscathouseoperational security. If you can watch it so can the enemy. The best you can get is carefully curated "highlights".
@absentmindedshirokuma8539
Жыл бұрын
@@richardscathouseit's absolutely televised everywhere. Maybe look it up. Except not in Russia since it supposedly "small military operation".
@tim3172
Жыл бұрын
@@richardscathouse There are *literally* tens of thousands of videos of the war right here on KZitem.
@NickJohnCoop
Жыл бұрын
One of the most nightmarish incidents of our modern culture, born out of people being ignorant of the substances they were supposed to be responsible for.
@hankkits4043
Жыл бұрын
It wasn't just ignorance, it was corruption and incompetence. Lebanon is a mess, sadly considering the rampant inflation and lack of power it isn't going to get much better,
@DirectInput
Жыл бұрын
Did you sleep through 1986?
@tk-lf1ny
Жыл бұрын
@@hankkits4043 IT WAS A TACTICAL PUKE AND ISRAEL IS APPLYING TO JOIN BRICS
@NickJohnCoop
Жыл бұрын
@@DirectInputSeeing as I was 5 years old at the time I’ll say yes.
@curbyourshi1056
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, I'm sure sabotage wasn't involved.
@robertmacdonald9330
Жыл бұрын
The firefighter's bodycam footage is the saddest and most amazing thing iv ever seen. They knew what was about to happen said their goodbyes and started running toward the fire
@chrismaverick9828
Жыл бұрын
While terrible, I think most can admit that the balcony and harbor captures of the shock wave are some of the most impressive caught on video since Pepcon. Absolutely stunning.
@miaohmya92
Жыл бұрын
It sure shows how all the terrifying and seemingly exagerrated shockwave special effects in films are actually spot on.
@darthkarl99
Жыл бұрын
@@miaohmya92 Often they are exaggerated for the size of explosion and amount of damage they do in the movie. But they're real in the sense that a large enough explosion will produce that kind of shockwave.
@roniusadethel9768
Жыл бұрын
I think the wedding drone video captured an interesting perspective. One moment, everything's fine, and after the Shockwave suddenly pure chaos.
@Shiestey
Жыл бұрын
Yeah you can’t help but admire the wave of the explosion, reminds me of the weapons plant that exploded in Texas and a random guy repairing a electrical tower like 3 miles away got it on video.
@debjoy12
Жыл бұрын
I had to google "pepcon" as I had no clue what that was referencing. I've never heard of that before, granted it happened before I was born, but I've heard of other disasters from that time like the Challenger or Exxon Valdez.
@Gypples
Жыл бұрын
Ever since learning how this happened I had hoped you would make a video on it. The sheer amount of negligence that allowed this to happen is baffling. Thank you for discussing this disaster and thank you for the quality content.
@swedishmeatball4382
Жыл бұрын
One of the pieces of the puzzle that lead to this disaster was planted in my hometown in late December 1983. We have a large port and every week we took the scenic route downtown where we could view the vessels currently in the harbour and marvel at their size and practise our knowledge of flags. However, on this particulat day in Dece,ber 1983 we stopped the car and stepped outside to really gawk at the thing in the harbour. It HAD been a ship once, but now it could only be described as a rust bucket. You could see more holes and deterioration than actual steel in the hull and how it could float at all seemed like a mystery. That day the news reported about the state of this ship and offcials went oboard and described all the missing and rusty stuff that made it basically impossible to properly load the ship; the bearing holding the load in place didn't exist any longer, nor could you close the hatches. No one wante dto load the ship as it seemed destined to not make it, plus the cargo couldn't be secured, but they had no legal rights to refuse, nor could the authorities force the ship to be repaired, so, it was loaded with cargo and sent on its way. It hit a bad storm in the Bay of Biscaya and went down. What followed was over a decade of trials where the port officials in my hometown were sentenced to lengthy prison sentences in Italy as the bad loading had caused the ship to sink, per the Italian investigation. They were cleared in the end but it took over 10 years and I think they were sentenced in three different trials during that time. In the meantime new regulations were worked out internationally where a ship could be declared unsafe and refused to leave port until it had been repaired. There were several strikes among port workers until this new law was finally accepted. Because, as much as the sinking was due to the sad state of the ship and not the poor loading (which wasn't top notch - due to the poor state of the ship) no one wants to know that they played any part at all in such a loss of life. I could add that on average we saw about five different ships every week in the port. This was the first time we ever saw one in such a horrific condition. There was a second vessel in slightly better shape a few years later and she remained in port for well over a year for repairs. But anyone who saw Tito Campabella knew that it would sink in the first storm it encountered. It was a death trap.
@jenniferk9242
Жыл бұрын
I've watched that explosion so many times from every angle captured and each time the force and devastation is unbelievable. It's like I'm never really prepared for what's to come. I simply can't imagine just going about my day and having my city destroyed around me in the blink of an eye. I don't know why I've watched it happen so many times, my heart breaks each and every time i do. As if the people of Beirut haven't suffered enough. Thanks for covering this, John.
@tyree9055
Жыл бұрын
It makes Hollywood's movie explosions look like child's play, doesn't it? That just goes to show how ignorant Hollywood's elites really are when they can't even model a large exolosion realistically in CGI. 🤷🤭
@change_your_oil_regularly4287
Жыл бұрын
Are you young? Did you watch the events of 9/11 I remember as a teen watching 9/11 unfold live on TV here in Australia. Running to my parents room to wake them up after the live broadcast cut in on the scheduled programming. My parents, my GF & I sat for hours watching everything happen in real time Incomprehensible
@Eldinloom
Жыл бұрын
9/11 was pretty horrifying, but it was two skyscrapers being directly hit, with limited damage to any other structure or anyone who wasn't within the towers. This was a gigantic explosion going off around the logistical centre of a city with enough force to reduce many many buildings to rubble, including hospitals and homes and emergency response hubs. New York's tragedy caused grief and fear, Beirut's caused devastation
@TheLadderman
Жыл бұрын
@@Eldinloomto be fair, 9/11 actually had a much much greater death toll than this.
@jenniferk9242
Жыл бұрын
@change_your_oil_regularly4287 I'm 56, can you not comprehend my comment? I can't imagine living in NYC during the wtc attacks and seeing that devastation either. Did I imply that only Beirut has experienced an horrific event? What's incomprehensible is your speed to attack someone for showing empathy toward the citizens of a city torn apart by a massive explosion. Edited for clarity
@1TakoyakiStore
Жыл бұрын
I have a weird connection to this tragic event. The design firm I was working for at the time had a Lebanese architect. His brother was in Beirut when the ammonium nitrate detonated. It was very surreal to be getting live photos and video of what happened before any news outlet aired anything substantial.
@itsasquid
Жыл бұрын
My God, what happened with his brother?
@throningermine8
Жыл бұрын
6:37 Wait. Someone thought it was a good idea to store _fireworks_ in a hangar full of ammonium nitrate?! What kind of clowns were running the port?!
@jnelson4765
Жыл бұрын
Corruption and ineptitude go hand in hand far too often sadly.
@Gusto20000
7 ай бұрын
Also there was 50t of ammonium phosphate, 5 rolls of slow burning detonating cord and 1000 car tires
@asukashinohara5604
Жыл бұрын
One of my close friends lives near Beirut. I remember hearing it first on a news app from the phone. My family is middle eastern, so hearing from an explosion wasn't something very new. But boy, was I wrong. After like 30 mins I decided to contact my friend, who in sheer panic and Chaos, started to text in our group. She was absolutely shocked, saying that multiple news outlets were theorizing if it was an attack from Israel. We texted the entire day, she was constantly given new information and in the end had to close all windows shut. She never talked about it until a few months ago, bawling and saying how the port was Lebanons last piece of stability and hope. The prices are skyrocking, there was no Gas and generally the country in is a crisis... I hope the country will see better days soon...
@pizzlerot2730
Жыл бұрын
That's one thing about this video that I wish John had mentioned, and which so many people don't realize. Yes, the city has rebuilt a good deal, and people are trying to return to business as usual, but the country itself is still very much in the middle of an economic disaster that was the direct result of this event. It's the kind of economic disaster that will be felt for generations, and remembered in reverence like we do the Great Depression or Great Recession in the US.
@kenosabi
Жыл бұрын
The "You had one job" award winner of the decade. Tragic and terrifying. I encourage everyone to check out the outlaw seas. A fantastic book that shows that the ocean is filled with a level of corruption most people dont realize.
@brunobastos5533
Жыл бұрын
Corruption is intrinsic in all Mediterranean basin and i know what iam talking , i live in one of them
@matiasfpm
Жыл бұрын
@@brunobastos5533oof.
@44R0Ndin
Жыл бұрын
"You had one job" award winner of the decade..... so far. It's 2023, we still got 7 years after that. And with the way the world is going, I'm not confidant that this incident's position as "worst mess caused by negligence" will stand for very long.
@Dexter037S4
Жыл бұрын
@@44R0Ndin I'm pretty sure a major US Rail carrier will basically dump a massive explosive into the centre of Chicago sooner or later.
@disguisedcat1750
Жыл бұрын
@@brunobastos5533 I would love to agree. To think that if I would leave this horrible place, I would be in safe hands outside. Sadly, the more I learn about the world and politics, the more this statement proves untrue. Corruption is currently running rampant everywhere. It is just shocking how seemingly unfixable that is.
@jollyjohnthepirate3168
Жыл бұрын
The town of West, Texas suffered something similar. But it was far bigger. There was a ammonium nitrate factory far to close to the town. A fire started there and the local fire department responded. The explosion completely wiped out the fire department and a good part of the town.
@erik_dk842
Жыл бұрын
The urban sprawl had reached the factory, just like the Indian Dow Chemical plant in Bhopal
@Tser
Жыл бұрын
I knew about this disaster but that video meeting footage from the beginning really brings it home.
@skaisnotdead
Жыл бұрын
I'm so glad you covered this. I feel like this was in the news for a week in the US and then the information just stopped. No updates, no progress reports, nothing. If this had happened in London and not Beirut we'd still be hearing about it today. I think about that a lot.
@laurenz4528
Жыл бұрын
It wouldn’t happen in a first world country….
@relight6931
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, glad you noticed this. It is really, really loop sided. About a half of humanity gets basicly no mass media coverage at all.. Just think about if you can remember anything just mundane or even positive happening in any of countries on the African continent.. If it's not a major disaster, war whole of Africa, South America is barely covered at all.
@relight6931
Жыл бұрын
@@laurenz4528Are you really saying accidents don't happen in first world countries.. You got to be joking.. Just google it lol.
@bartsanders1553
Жыл бұрын
I watched a chemist review the frame by frame a day after this and he figured it was a huge amount of amonium nitrate based on the color of the cloud before the shockwave. Nice to see he was dead-on.
@YuBeace
Жыл бұрын
It wasn’t the first time in humanity’s history that improperly stored ammonium nitrate blew up a port. Sad but true. You see orange smoke, you’re in for a bad time…
@sir_christmas_leopold_duckson
Жыл бұрын
This is particularly terrifying to me because I live right down the road from the local co-op where they have far more ammonium nitrate stored than what exploded in Beirut.
@nomadben
Жыл бұрын
I think my ass would move somewhere else lol
@sv3106
Жыл бұрын
I once worked in a small electrician company that was stationed in the same area where fertilizer was produced. As such there where some storage spaces full of ammonium nitrate. Because of that there was a smoking ban in the whole area. Back then one of our new part time worker ignored that and started smoking right outside that storage facility. Needless to say that we all nearly shat our pants when we saw her outside smoking. Luckely nothing happened since the storage spaces are extra protected but still you are never 100% safe.
@neuralmute
Жыл бұрын
That's what boggles my mind about this entire disaster - who stores fireworks and fertilizer in the same warehouse, *and then* sends in someone to do a spot of welding in that space?!?
@aaronpaul5990
Жыл бұрын
@@neuralmute Lot B belongs to company C who leased it from company D who has no Idea what is stored in A .... In a normal warehouse i assume you actually have someone resposible for the whole building that should know exactly what is stored and what regulations has to be follow ... in a mess like this one? Good luck finding anybody who knows whats going on beyond their own little space. (And yes any warehouse that sores firework next to fertilizer is a mess)
@tookitogo
Жыл бұрын
Did that worker keep her job?!.
@sv3106
Жыл бұрын
@@tookitogo No. She was even banned from that area (its like a big company owned area with its own firefighters, security, etc...)
@tookitogo
Жыл бұрын
@@sv3106 was or wasn’t banned?
@CarlDavies27
Жыл бұрын
I can't believe they knew it was a hazard and then stored fireworks alongside. Then just started welding nearby. It seems absolutely crazy.
@grapeshot
Жыл бұрын
Reminds me of the explosions that took place in Halifax Nova Scotia in 1917 and the Texas City explosion in 1947.
@bartsanders1553
Жыл бұрын
Pretty sure Halifax was bigger, yes?
@jtgd
Жыл бұрын
And New York 1917 Literally shattered windows miles away and damaged the Statue of Liberty to this day
@MeriaDuck
Жыл бұрын
And quite a few more... We never seem to learn. Imagine stacking fireworks on top of fertilizer that's slowly becoming less stable.
@Cecily-Pimprenelle
Жыл бұрын
And AZF, Toulouse, 21 september 2001 (given the Timing, quite a few Theories were flying around at first. I think there might have been fireworks involved, too, in the plant next(-ish?) to it).
@Awesomeman1987
Жыл бұрын
@@bartsanders1553to me it’s hard to imagine a bigger accidental explosion than this but yes. The Halifax explosion was said to have been equivalent to 2.9 kilo tons of tnt… about 3 times larger than this one.
@stormshadow_6477
Жыл бұрын
With all the nuclear and radiological incidents that were covered by you, this is hands down one of the darkest episode to date.
@mariemccann5895
Жыл бұрын
Nothing particularly dark about this, just incompetence.
@lofthouse23
Ай бұрын
Agreed. Professor Plainly's tone is very subdued on this one. 😢
@pris1378
Жыл бұрын
luckily my cousin, who lived in beirut at the time, was back in austria for the summer. her husband, who's office was in the most heavy hit zone, was out of the city for a work thing...
@nerdygoth6905
Жыл бұрын
Glad your family were safe, very lucky coincidences.
@Kristopherf1
Жыл бұрын
I have seen several documentaries on this tragedy, but you always seem to reveal more of what happened. Thank you!
@jacekatalakis8316
Жыл бұрын
As soon as I saw it I instantly guessed it was ammonium nitrate, even before any news said what was in the warehouse. I'm not sure if that's me knowing the explosion signature or just watching disaster channels entirely too much, jury's still out on that one. That being said, I'm always somewhat worried now with bags of fertilizer and warehouses that store ammonium nitrate. I'll just be nervously watching the chemical works I go past regularly then
@SuperibyP
Жыл бұрын
As did I - especially once that red cloud appears seconds after the second blast.
@chrismaverick9828
Жыл бұрын
People just don't know the dangers of nitrates. While a relatively minimal risk compared to pure AN, I've had to remind my coworkers and managers to never display or store kerosene or oils next to the Ammonium Sulfate or lawn fertilizers. Pool chemicals are much the same being that they are primarily oxidizers. People just don't learn/remember chemistry nor read warning labels.
@Dayz3O6
Жыл бұрын
@@chrismaverick9828 It even has the word ammo in it.
@EmyrDerfel
Жыл бұрын
I've watched enough Explosions&Fire to expect destruction when Tom says he's making a few milligrams of a nitrogen-rich compound. Highest he's produced and detonated is I think 14 Nitrogen atoms, in Azidoazide Azide. A pinch of white crystals turn a drink can into glitter.
@stupidminotaur9735
Жыл бұрын
The 218 dead is the official number, 1 lady lost her sister in the explosion but because of red tape she can't have her declared dead or missing from the explosion. And I only found out about this 1 case because a news crew followed her around to all the city morgues and then the police station.
@gocelotspice5766
Жыл бұрын
I wouldn’t be surprised if the death toll is a lot higher than reported, since their was clearly political motives in the investigation and something to gain from suppressing numbers
@RamoArt
Жыл бұрын
It's almost always like that though.
@stupidminotaur9735
Жыл бұрын
@@RamoArtyEa curropution . Famously a nurse went missing during 9/11 and still hasn't been counted in the dead.
@jackimo22
Жыл бұрын
What’s crazy is ammonium nitrate is completely inert until it’s heated above 180°C when it starts to dissociate into oxides of nitrogen (flammable) and hydrogen (big boom). Above 250°C and it’s all over, it can self sustain its decomposition from the heat it produces from the breaking of the chemical bonds and the hydrogen and oxygen that is released is insanely explosive. Source: I work at a ammonium nitrate chemical plant where we produce 900k tonnes of AN p.a.
@nerdygoth6905
Жыл бұрын
Thank you! I was wondering if it deteriorated left to its own devices, and now I know. Suggests the answer might be to store it in a refrigerated unit.
@jackimo22
Жыл бұрын
@@nerdygoth6905 solid AN storage facilities tend to be climate controlled to regulate the humidity as AN is hygroscopic (attracts water) and can turn into rock hard lumps and eventually mush. AN doesn’t deteriorate and become more unstable without the introduction of organics (flammable material) otherwise. It’s near impossible to know what, if any, other chemicals or products were stored or spilt on the AN over the many years it sat in the warehouse. The thing with AN is that once a small bit of AN detonates the rest will follow, through sympathetic detonation. To put it simply, everything that could go wrong did go wrong in Beirut.
@CruelestChris
Жыл бұрын
IIRC, can't it start to get unstable if it contacts humidity (say, by being stored in a warehouse at a port in a hot climate), since it liquifies and starts trying to do interesting things to anything it contacts.
@Diandredofus
Жыл бұрын
It's never a good idea to store too much of stuff that can blow up in a single place, regardless of the conditions required.
@Ntwadumela1
Жыл бұрын
Detonating AN is virtually impossible without a blasting cap and a booster. In this warehouse, in addition to ammonium nitrate, there were also fireworks that initiated the explosion. I've tried many times to throw ANFO into a bonfire and it did nothing.
@wilting_alocasia
Жыл бұрын
I've watched the explosion multiple times from different angles, cameras and heights, but I'll never get over how insanely massive it was
@faenethlorhalien
Жыл бұрын
This is the closest you can get to a nuke without radioactivity. Absolutely terrifying.
@brylozketrzyn
Жыл бұрын
Its yield was 10% of Little Boy nuke. Larger cargo could actually be much higher than small nuke.
@AnotherPointOfView944
Жыл бұрын
Not quite, but near.
@JoshSweetvale
Жыл бұрын
Kinetic hammers can get a lot closer to nukes. Even worse because they're ground-burst by definition. If you have a big enough rocket in a high enough orbit, a big block of metal can become the fist of god when it hits the ground.
@mariemccann5895
Жыл бұрын
Not quite, but I get your point.
@gorillaau
Жыл бұрын
@@JoshSweetvaleSo no need to nuke the facility from high orbit? Now there are two ways to be sure. - Paraphrased from the movie Aliens.
@kasuraga
Жыл бұрын
Honestly I'm shocked in this day and age oxidizers aren't treated with more care. I'd hope they are now, but any time I hear of a large amount of any oxidizing agent, it makes me uncomfortable. I've played around with some to make sugar rockets and I never want that shit anywhere near anything else.
@nerdygoth6905
Жыл бұрын
As you say, astonishingly low death rate for such a large explosion. Particularly in such a densely populated area. I don't know if this would have made a difference given the sparks caused by the work on the door, but I'd like to think if the danger presented by the fertiliser was better understood the next storage area would not have contained fireworks
@Dayz3O6
Жыл бұрын
The number of injuries however, you might be alive but the damage it sometime even worst than death.
@tonymouannes
Жыл бұрын
It was there on a 'temporary' bases, so no precautions were taken. There was a lot of negligence involved. The port policy didn't allow such a storage to begin with.
@deletdis6173
Жыл бұрын
The fact that this is already considered historical makes me feel practically geriatric. 👴
@buruzn09
Жыл бұрын
From a human interest and film-making standpoint, the opening of this video was powerful and phenomenal.
@debbieellett9093
Жыл бұрын
I never knew all the details surrounding this tragedy. Thanks again for your hard work in order to bring the total story to light.
@NeedsMoreBirds
Жыл бұрын
I thought I remembered this from the news. It’s frustrating that the investigation into everyone responsible has taken ages and still hasn’t reached a resolution.
@HighlanderNorth1
Жыл бұрын
🚫 Unfortunately, at this point in human history, it should shock no one that the (corrupt) government officials would fail to prevent this tragedy, even though they were aware of the problem several years earlier. It's no surprise that the regulatory system is so inept and corrupt that ANY wealthy oligarch can get into the shipping business, using terribly maintained ships, while carrying dangerous materials, with little to no accountability when they "allegedly" go broke and refuse to pay fees and fines. It should be no surprise when basically nothing about this corrupt system changes even after a section of the city was blown up! Most amazingly, there will be a large section of the population who'll decide that the solution is to keep the same system and the same corrupt government officials in office, while insisting that they be given more money and more power(but with no additional oversight or accountability). We have tens of millions of like-minded people in America who think the same way. They believe that we can create a great socialist utopia by handing over vastly more power and money to their political party, while also allowing those politicians to strip away our civil liberties, including our rights to dissent against them when they inevitably become more corrupt!
@tonyennis1787
Жыл бұрын
What's the resolution other than, "Don't store massive amounts of explosives in your city"
@darthkarl99
Жыл бұрын
The largest problem with the investigation as far as i can tell is that ultimate responsibility for making sure this didn't happen lay with the judicial system. The same system thats running the investigation. When no one can do anything until the courts tell them what needs to be done a slow system is a problem. Unfortunately it's not clear if the slowness was just typical judicial stuff or actual corruption. Which shows the real issue, the country has no agency or authority whose job it is to securely store and hold explosive materials like ammonium nitrate when they're seized as part of a legal case. So until the courts act they'll be stuck in random locations based on where they're seized with inevitable long-term consequences.
@mariemccann5895
Жыл бұрын
The only resolution there is ever going to be is "It wasn't my fault it was his."
@mommayp8353
Жыл бұрын
Interesting, I feel like the narrative that was largely popular at the time was that the ammonium nitrate had been sitting in port for years and officials didn't care and thus never took action. To hear they were actively trying to get rid of the stuff up until the explosion definitely gives me a new angle on this. It's almost more sad because they knew the possibilities but couldn't really do much until they found someone to take it.
@levanataylor790
Жыл бұрын
Well, "the authorities" is not a unified body in this instance. Lebanon is entirely ruled by cronyism, and also the organizational and governmental structure is fragmented by the power-sharing deals that have been worked out, principally at the end of the French protectorate period and after the end of the civil war. Nobody would take responsibility for this unsafely-stored AN -- the guys on the spot, who actually had charge of the warehouse, may have written letters asking someone to take it off their hands, but whoever they wrote to could always say it was someone else's problem. There are also letters to judges asking for a court order requiring action, but the judges said they didn't have jurisdiction. Actually some of the harbor authorities wrote repeatedly to the same judge and got the same answer, which makes you think they had no clue what to do and were just trying to have it be seen that they were doing something. The HRW report titled "They Killed Us from the Inside" has discussion of the organizational factors involved.
@DJRobNHood
Жыл бұрын
This is your best intro yet. Really excellent at bringing the stakes to the front.
@markr.devereux3385
Жыл бұрын
This is truly surreal negligency. The shot from i think 2 jetskiers out in the ocean was EPIC!! THE explosion filled the whole sky.
@rogerp6903
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for the excellent coverage of this horrific event.Your music production chops are improving each episode you release.Thanks Mr.Difficult!
@knutini
Жыл бұрын
It’s never just one stupid mistake, it’s always many people making MANY mistakes.
@hordboy
Жыл бұрын
That material (I hesitate to name it specifically) would certainly be a degraded mess after being stored in a humid environment that long. It’s beyond stupid to have left it there that long, but we all know that now.
@scrambledmandible
Жыл бұрын
Ammonium Nitrate
@sudonim7552
Жыл бұрын
When news of this reached me, I was instantly reminded of the ammonium nitrate explosion which occurred in the port of Tianjin, China in 2015. I actually happened to be near Tianjin at the time, and while I didn't feel it, the news of this happening in such a local area was shocking, so it stuck with me. The videos of the blast bear a great deal of similarities to those taken in Beirut, and the explosion caused a similar number of deaths and injuries. Truly terrifying stuff.
@Erik_Ice_Fang
Жыл бұрын
I was thinking the exact same thing.
@MM-iy7gz
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for producing such well crafted content. Always well researched and well presented with respect to the subject and no sensationalism. This is one of the few channels on you tube that I can not only stomach, but can also enjoy. (As much as one can enjoy disaster videos.) Thank you.
@hotlavatube
Жыл бұрын
Great work as always. I was just watching Forensic Architecture's analysis of the disaster based upon prior photographs as well as videos of the disaster in progress. He did some great 3D renderings and analysis of the likely warehouse layout, types of smoke, and stages of the disaster.
@crazycoffee
Жыл бұрын
I remember when this happenend. The explosion scientifically was very interesting to see the least. That vaporwave sticks in my head still. Looking at the before and after where that warehouse was shows the pure energy.
@motionless_horizon
Жыл бұрын
My best friend lived two blocks from the explosion. I live in the US, and I had no idea this happened until he called me. It was horrible. He sustained permanent damage to his ears and is deaf in his left ear from the blast. His sister was outside and had been cut by glass shards flying through the air, and she also sustained hearing loss. They both took part in the cleanup and recovery of people stuck or injured after the explosion. He suffers severe PTSD from it, to the point that he had to leave university because leaving the house causes extreme panic attacks. He’s healing slowly, but it’s insane that this even happened in the first place.
@ChessJourneyman
Жыл бұрын
Right, blame a college drop out on PTSP. Some ppl just want to be victims.
@ghostnebula8805
4 ай бұрын
@@ChessJourneyman🤬
@MAXIMUSS2072
Жыл бұрын
Waking up on a Saturday full of things to do, and not to ignore it all and watch this video was plainly difficult. Good job, love the channel!
@OhioOwns
Жыл бұрын
I can't even begin to explain how brilliant it is to weld next to a giant pile of fireworks. Einstein-level brilliance.
@leigha2814
Жыл бұрын
I remember the videos hitting social media basically real time, and wondering how anyone at all survived.
@carpemkarzi
Жыл бұрын
Well done John. The videos are just frightening as the blast wave rips through the city.
@jasonvorhes765
Жыл бұрын
I always want these to be longer. You do a very good job of wrapping up the content in a quick and efficient manner.
@TransDrummer1312
Жыл бұрын
This explosion really put how bad a nuclear explosion is by comparison into perspective for me. Like… my god. Seeing a detonation like this actually tear a city asunder from so many angles, was sobering to say the least.
@rasmusjensen8271
Жыл бұрын
Yeah especially when you think about the fact that almost every nuke is between 2x and 25x as powerful as the Beirut explosion, and that the Russians have a nuke that theoretically is 100x more powerful...
@grantdillon3420
Жыл бұрын
@@rasmusjensen8271t's actually much much worse than this. The explosive yield of Hiroshima was around 20-25x this explosion, the average strategic nuclear warhead now is about 200- 1000x this explosion, and the biggest warhead the Russians ever tested was 100,000x the yield of this explosion, never mind the temperatures greater than the Sun that will vaporize anyone close enough, and still cause third-degree burns miles and miles away.
@rasmusjensen8271
Жыл бұрын
@@grantdillon3420 I'm high as hell but damn I need some of the shit the Russians were smoking 😂
@Ntwadumela1
Жыл бұрын
@@grantdillon3420 Hiroshima yeld was 15 kt and this one was only 0.2 +/- 0.08 kt which means Hiroshima explosion was 53 - 125 times stronger. In addition, in the case of high explosives, there is no lethal radiation. The Tsar Bomba had a yeld of 50 Mt which is about 180 - 416 thousand times Beirut.
@TechPriest97
Жыл бұрын
I was in the midst of moving from one apartment to another in the same floor of the same building, took a nap was so exhausted, woke up because my sister had a window shatter on her and my mother narrowly avoiding a falling closet, she thought there was an airstrike happening. Had a friend on the road within view of the port, car flipped with him in it, his face was completely fucked. He's fine now though. Another friend's cousin was a firefighter at the scene, they never found the body.
@SamsungGalaxy-vw9gy
Жыл бұрын
There was no air strike.
@neuralmute
Жыл бұрын
@@SamsungGalaxy-vw9gy The post says that they *thought* there was an air strike, because the explosion was so big and violent. Please read more carefully before posting.
@SamsungGalaxy-vw9gy
Жыл бұрын
@neuralmute I don't care what The Post said. I was in the port district before, during and after the incident. The fire in the roofed hangar caused the wind to make weird noises (variable pressure escaping from parts of the roof and broken windows), so people far away thought it was an airstrike. They are morons who don't have a clue what was happening. I did not hear any planes or passing missiles, and I grew up on the frontline in Beirut and witnessed numerous air strikes in the 1970s and 1980s. The incident was an insider job, no question about it. The perpetrators have a long track of killings and violence, so everyone is avoiding mentioning names.
@TechPriest97
Жыл бұрын
@@SamsungGalaxy-vw9gyy mother lived through the civil war and the 2005 war, so that’s what she first thought in the seconds after the explosion. She thought it was on our street as well
@slanderous.j
5 ай бұрын
It's scary to think I've seen, in person, a stockpile of this stuff at least 5x this size years ago.
@AdamHoy81
Жыл бұрын
Thanks again John for the vid, I really appreciate the time taken, you keep up the great work mate 👍
@AdamHoy81
Жыл бұрын
More Thermobaric mate
@philips.5563
Жыл бұрын
When this happened, the world's OSINT and military intelligence communities had a lot of little backchannel talks making sure that nobody did it. It reminded me of stories about the conversation between American and Soviet intelligence services about JFK's assassination.
@tk-lf1ny
Жыл бұрын
I HOPE UKRAINE DOES NOT GO NUCLEAR TOO.
@ThaDoctah
Жыл бұрын
Your audio mastering has improved incredibly. Great work as always!
@jenniferk9242
Жыл бұрын
I have to say that's your best intro to date. Horrifically effective and captivating.
@kaymarie252
Жыл бұрын
I was really hoping you would cover this event. Thank you for making your documentaries so informative, in such a short time frame, as someone with ADHD is really hard to have a love for historical events while also being unable to focus for long periods, so thank you!
@dylandettorre
Жыл бұрын
Thank you so much John, still a lot of misinformation going around about this
@mariemccann5895
Жыл бұрын
So you have the answers then? lol
@dylandettorre
Жыл бұрын
@@mariemccann5895 It would appear as though I do, yes.
@nahmastay3300
Жыл бұрын
So happy you finally covered this. Such a horrific disaster. And those poor people have been royally screwed over by their government
@jonathanjackgoodman2764
Жыл бұрын
I was working on a ranch and the bordering property had a grain silo fire which is bad enough but it spread to the fertilizer shed and literally exploded. To this day I've never heard something so loud or terrifying.
@jajssblue
Жыл бұрын
That opening clip is chilling.
@axelprino
Жыл бұрын
The videos of the quickly expanding shockwave from the explosion are some of the scariest things recorded, it's slow enough for one's brain to process it yet simultaneously fast enough that anyone watching it in real life wouldn't have had time to react much less duck for cover. One can tell that a human being hit by the full blast has a very little chance of surviving, but for a terrifying instant they were fully aware of what was about to happen to them.
@nemo-x
Жыл бұрын
No they can absolutely survive hence the uploaded video. As long as they aren't hit by any flying rubble or don't get their lungs caved in, or don't get thrown against a hard object. So yea. Not a good thing to experience. Like a wall of unstoppable destruction running towards you.
@duccukR6
Жыл бұрын
I've been waiting to see more about the Beirut explosion for a while, thanks for covering it
@karstendoerr5378
Жыл бұрын
Well, it was not the first disaster of this kind Here are some examples of previous explosions: -Explosion of BASF's ammonia plant in Oppau (now a district of Ludwigshafen am Rhein) on September 21, 1921: Solidified ammonium sulfate nitrate fertilizer was usually loosened there by means of dynamite before being discharged. Due to a change in the production process, there was probably a local accumulation of ammonium nitrate in the product. The blasts triggered two explosions in quick succession, detonating about 400 of a total of 4,500 tons of fertilizer in a silo, causing one of the largest explosion losses in history: 559 people were killed, 1977 injured, and a large part of the factory and surrounding development were destroyed. The explosion could be heard as far away as Munich, 300 kilometers away. -In the Texas City explosion on April 16, 1947, the two freighters Grandcamp (France) and Highflyer (USA) loaded with about 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in the port of Texas City in the United States. There were 500 to 600 dead, over 100 missing, 8000 injured, hundreds homeless, and $65 million in damage.
@vHindenburg
Жыл бұрын
Wasnt Ammonium Nitrate also intentionally used at Messines in 1916/7?
@karstendoerr5378
Жыл бұрын
@@vHindenburg The substance in question was amonal, a mixture of amonium nitrate and aluminum.
@CruelestChris
Жыл бұрын
Plus ammonium nitrate was a staple payload explosive for truck and car bombs, from The Troubles in Ireland to the Oklahoma City Bombing.
@karstendoerr5378
Жыл бұрын
@@CruelestChris Just think of the ANC explosives used in mining. These are mixtures of the oxidant ammonium nitrate and reducing agents such as mineral or diesel oil.
@AcuraLvR82
Жыл бұрын
Excellent video on the topic John. May I suggest doing some weather disaster videos? For instance, the 2011 Joplin, MO tornado event that tore the city to shreds leaving a huge amount of devastation, death and injury in its wake.
@GMxTekhe
Жыл бұрын
That was one hell of an intro, Plainly! Personally, the investigation needs to ask: WHO THE HELL LET THEM WELD IN A HANGER WITH FIREWORKS ANS AMMONIUM NITRATE?!?
@alexjenner1108
Жыл бұрын
not to mention, who thought it was a good idea to put the fireworks and ammonium nitrate in the same building?
@timheunisch
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for giving credit 9:15! The team shown is a German UN classified search and rescue team
@LNRMusicCuration
Жыл бұрын
Love to see both the credit given, and more info from the source.
@damedusa5107
Жыл бұрын
There was a license to hold and blend 5000 tonnes of this where I live, the council rejected it but the government overruled them. The story disappeared from local media after the government overturned the council. No idea how much is actually currently stored there now. There’s house not far away from the reported area.
@davidpawson7393
Жыл бұрын
I'm still amazed at how low the number of fatalities were. I figured I had originally watched 10K plus people die in an instant. RIP innocent souls.
@p.wynnmarkstall1737
Жыл бұрын
Big Aphex Twin vibes in this outro piece. You did a good job on this documentary. Thank you.
@PlainlyDifficult
Жыл бұрын
Thank you
@ComradeMarlow
Жыл бұрын
That cold open was pretty well done. Kudos to the minds behind starting the vid with that--keep up the good work.
@kirara2516
Жыл бұрын
Out of the many tragedies that happened that day, the best one was that of the bride. Taking photos in her dress when the explosion happened. Instead of fleeing in panic she went into rescue mode and helped others around her.
@RinoaL
Жыл бұрын
I remember when it first came on the news I was like "I bet it was Amonium Nitrate... has to be" and sure enough it was.
@joshuabillings5108
Жыл бұрын
We almost had an ammonium nitrate disaster in my home town last year. It was the Weaver fertilizer company fire. In Winston Salem NC
@YuBeace
Жыл бұрын
I was literally just thinking about this disaster earlier today, looks like you were too. Sigh, ammonium nitrate is no joke, it’s no wonder many places try to be strict about their storage and cargo regulations. It’s so odd that they did realise it was as dangerous as housing a bomb, but failed to remove it with the urgency of one. And then the fireworks too… The most devastating explosion to happen in modern history of my own country happened because of improperly stored fireworks. Everywhere in the country IMMEDIATELY took action to re-evaluate where and how their things were stored. But this warehouse didn’t get the memo…
@catriona_drummond
Жыл бұрын
Thy failed to remove it because Hisbollah had called dibs on it. Free possible bomb material.
@Jasonhoward117
Жыл бұрын
I was working in Alaska when this happened, loading trailers of ammonium nitrate for the mines. We had about 2500 tons of product in the yard at all times. Needless to say, this explosion made me change careers.
@o0o-jd-o0o95
Жыл бұрын
This was one of the most horrific explosions I've ever seen caught on camera. When you look closely you will realize that alot of the explosions that happen like this by accident are from somebody mishandling ammonium nitrate
@dalejr183
7 ай бұрын
I remember the shockwave blast in my home from the West Texas fertilizer explosion ammonium nitrate.. I live 30 miles away and it knocked me out of my Lazy Boy.
@wordydird
Жыл бұрын
A very good example of what saying "not my problem" can lead to. I get that sometimes it really isn't your problem. But I just wish with shit like this that someone would just step up before it's too late. Even if it isn't their job
@PBeringer
Жыл бұрын
Brilliant work, John! I learned so much from this that I didn't encounter even a passing reference to in the mainstream media coverage. The intro was bloody intense, I must say.
@evlkenevl2721
Жыл бұрын
Oh no! We're gonna get in trouble for this! Oh, wait. We're politicians. Nevermind.
@TimeIsMine93
Жыл бұрын
One hell of intro my man, that was like a movie
@johnnysun6495
Жыл бұрын
Very important detail you missed: The cause of the fire is likely not the welders. Forensic Architecture has a great video on the investigation.
@WackoMcGoose
Жыл бұрын
That intro, though... Most broadcasters probably work with the realization that someday, they may _become_ the news themselves. But I doubt any of them are ever ready for when it _does_ happen...
@Tomlar147
Жыл бұрын
My brother had been years before at Beirut in parts of the UNIFIL mission in his time with the Bundesmarine (Navy of Germany). His ship had been moored quite close to the Warehouse. After he had heard of it. If the explosion had happened when he was there... the ship would had been vaporized... Welp
@nicholasm5184
Жыл бұрын
As the engineering saying goes "most rules in civil engineering are written in blood, so try not to make a new one"
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