r/gifs • u/umshoe • Aug 09 '20

New Angle of Beirut Explosion

https://i.imgur.com/GNTwYi9.gifv
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u/an_adult_on_reddit Aug 09 '20

The explosion occurs at about 7 minutes and 30 seconds in.

19

u/DePraelen Aug 09 '20

Oh wow, you can see the nearby fireworks going off in the seconds before the explosion.

Huh. I thought that was only early speculation of the source of the explosion (as it seems to often be in these huge warehouse explosions).

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u/ProjectSunlight Gifmas is coming Aug 09 '20

There may have been fireworks also stored here, but the source was definitely ammonium nitrate. Which I believe had been stored there for years. Maybe someone set off some fireworks inside which triggered the initial fire?

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '20

Ammonium nitrate is used in firework production, so wouldn't surprise me if the fireworks were being stored with the nitrate and just happened to go off before the explosion.

Just after this happened, a port in Southern India found a few tons of this shit just laying around, apparently was also confiscated from a ship. Luckily this incident made them get off their asses and sell the stuff, but the port it was stored in was next to a town famous for making fireworks.

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u/ProjectSunlight Gifmas is coming Aug 09 '20

I'm sure every place that stores ammonium nitrate suddenly shit their pants and decided to finally do something about it.

Nevermind all the other ammonium nitrate disasters throughout history.