Massive Blast in Lebanon

That explosion is terrifying but also the aftermath of shredded apartment blocks. The death toll will be huge when everyone is finally accounted for. :(
 
LondonJohn said:
But surely a commercial freight shipping line could have been found to take the stash to a willing buyer - after all, nitrate fertilisers are in demand in agribusiness pretty much all over the world, and I believe that sizeable quantities are safely shipped with regularity. And even failing that, they could surely have found a buyer in Lebanon, Syria or Turkey and transported it overland?

I guess that maybe in time we might find out the true dynamics here: how much was stored, under what conditions, for how long; and whether a buyer and/or onward transportation had been properly pursued.
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Who pays? Legally who owns the cargo? AN isn't valuable, in bulk it's around €200 per tonne. Shipping costs (container) run around €0.75 per tonne.nm.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
Because people don't learn from history.
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All too true.

Skeptic Ginger said:
Right away I thought of this one in TX in 1947. Ammonium Nitrate was the source: History: Fertilizer explosion kills 581 in Texas

I thought it was 1500 dead but my memory doesn't match the article.
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There are a lot of questions and disputes over the PoT death toll. Well over a thousand is quite probable due to a lackadaisical attitude towards records.

Skeptic Ginger said:
And I know it was a ship being loaded on the docks so this is the one I was thinking of.
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Ports and cargo transfers are the usual site of problems. Occasionally manufacturing sites (though that's usually HE.
 
angrysoba said:
That explosion is terrifying but also the aftermath of shredded apartment blocks. The death toll will be huge when everyone is finally accounted for. :(
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It'll probably never be known to better than a couple of hundred.

Look at the Fort Stikine.
 
Bob001 said:
Not to digress too far, but why is this extremely dangerous stuff routinely used as fertilizer? Even storing a bag in a shed has to be a threat to life and limb. Is there no useful material that doesn't blow things up?
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Because it's not "extremely dangerous". It's actually very safe. Natural gas explosions kill more people.

arthwollipot said:
I'm gonna say that perhaps it's used because it works.
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And it's cheap. It's an excellent fertiliser, with both quick (nitrate) and slow (ammonium) nitrogen for plants to use.
It's a mediocre explosion; not very powerful, difficult to detonate, hydroscopic, messy et cetera. But it's cheap and generally safe.
 
Ziggurat said:
It’s all about the nitrogen. Nitrogen is vital to all life, but plants cannot use nitrogen from the air. They need it bonded in a solid, not as N2. But solid nitrogen compounds are often very energetic (that’s why plants can’t make it themselves). And... that’s what makes things go boom. Look up them chemical formula for different explosives, you will find a lot of them contain nitrogen.

Typical lawn fertilizer contains enough other stuff to dilute its explosive potential.
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I'd nitpick and point out that some plants, classically clover, have root nodules with rhizobia bacteria that can 'fix' atmospheric nitrogen. A capability there's a lot of interest in genemodding to other plants too.
However reliance on such plants to re-nitrogenate the soil would drastically reduce yields and lead to mass starvation.
 
Lukraak_Sisser said:
In addition to this, it's not dangerous if properly handled and stored.
But that costs money and humans tend to go for the 'eh, it'll be all right' if that is cheaper.
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And a big pile of AN sacks doesn't look as dangerous as barrels of sulphuric acid or carload of liquefied ammonia.
Humans are frankly ***** at estimating danger rationally. That's why we need, and have, experts, processes and inspections.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Something similar happened to tanker on the Tees a few years ago. It was stopped from sailing after an inspection as the crew conditions were below standard and the general condition of the ship was dangerous. It sat on the Tees for about 18 months.
Also a ship was stuck in Great Yarmouth for nearly 2 years after the owners went bust.
In that case the captain stayed aboard alone to stop anyone claiming 'salvage' on it while ownership was worked out.

It's not all that rare and is becoming more common.
International Maritime Organization and the International Labor Organization reports nearly 5,000 seafarers were abandoned on their vessels in nearly 400 separate incidents between 2004 and 2018.
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Too bloody true. However national governments are reluctant to act.
 
It's not that in and off itself Ammonium Nitrate is all that dangerous, it's just that we tend to have large quantities of it moving around and being stored.
 
People had been demanding for years that the content of those warehouses be moved out of the country, but the officials dragged their feet, and now 85% of the country's grain supply has been destroyed along with it, leaving Lebanon with about a month's worth of grain.
 
Belz... said:
People had been demanding for years that the content of those warehouses be moved out of the country, but the officials dragged their feet, and now 85% of the country's grain supply has been destroyed along with it, leaving Lebanon with about a month's worth of grain.
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Plus damage to the port that will prevent large shipments from being brought in, as I understand it.
 
Armitage72 said:
Plus damage to the port that will prevent large shipments from being brought in, as I understand it.
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And here's an article, literally less than 24 hours before the explosion, breaking down how Lebanon's economy was already in freefall due to chronic mismanagement and out of control inflation and I'm no economist but I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume "better" isn't the sort of thing "giant port explosions" tend to make an economy.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/aug/03/lebanese-economy-in-freefall-a-photo-essay
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The devastation from 30 tons of AN can be seen in this informative video from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB)
--CSB Safety Video on the April 17, 2013, fire and explosion at the West Fertilizer Company in West, Texas, which resulted in 15 fatalities, 260 injuries, and widespread community damage. The deadly fire and explosion occurred when about thirty tons of fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate exploded after being heated by a fire at the storage and distribution facility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdDuHxwD5R4
 
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