Huge Explosion in Beirut

Lorac

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It was a fireworks factory apparently. A similar accident occurred in 2000 in the Dutch city of Enschede.


I remember it because it was the same night as Eurovision that year. :shuffle:

I can see small sparkles exploding in the footage shown prior to the 2nd huge explosion - so can well believe it was a firework factory. We had one explode near me a couple of years ago - and the owner was jailed for 10 years as 2 people lost their lives. This Beirut one was huge - I can well see the number of fatalities growing. How utterly horrendous :(
 

MsZem

I see the sea
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18,458
Apparently it's not a fireworks factory, but a warehouse where confiscated explosive materials were stored.
Casualty estimates are in the hundreds :(
 

rfisher

Let the skating begin
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Any speculation as to an accident or sabotage? Blowing up an explosives warehouse would be a great way to create a lot of damage. The authorities may not have time for a forensics examination
 

Cachoo

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This is so sad. I recently finished an article that said how badly people were slipping into poverty in Lebanon because of the beer burden and now this. Who is there? Red Crescent? Red Cross?
 
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Coco

Rotating while Russian!
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Horrifying. My heart goes out to everyone affected by that.
 

Rob

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Thought to be ammonium nitrate - similar to the explosions in West, Texas and Tianjin, China.
 

victorskid

Happily ignoring ultracrepidarians (& trolls)!
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Given the "unstable" situation with the Lebanese government, we are being advised to direct financial assistance to/through NGOs on the ground - the initial Canadian government $ were channeled through the Canadian Red Cross to the Lebanese Red Cross. The former has set up a Lebanese Humanitarian Response fund to receive donations for this purpose.

President Macron, on his visit yesterday, underlined a similar point about not putting funds into the hands of the government.

The numbers of dead and injured keep rising as well as those who are still missing and those made homeless due to structural damage.
 

MsZem

I see the sea
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18,458

Thought to be ammonium nitrate - similar to the explosions in West, Texas and Tianjin, China.
More on the ship and its cargo in the NYT. The way it was handled seems irresponsible if not outright negligent.
 

Vagabond

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25,378
Too little too late.
Obviously, though that was one of the objectives of the ongoing protest movement long before the explosion.

The protesters also want the President and Speaker of Parliament to resign. New elections would be good, but I have no idea how feasible that would be right now. 😷
 

Catherine M

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I couldn't get the Lebanese red cross donation page to work so went with a food bank that was on the list of approved donation NGOs as I wanted to do something as I just can't imagine how bad things are there.
 

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