As a kid in the 80's and a child of a Marine, Beirut was shorthand for Godforsaken bombed-out ****hole. I had read it had slowly made a return to civilized stature but suffers from massive corruption and indifference.

Zemira said:

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So I don't know much about explosions but to casual observer it looks like their were 3 explosions. First looks like fireworks were somehow ignited and caused a relatively small explosion. This caused a chain reaction of some kind of chemicals to explode (weird maroon cloud), and then immediately after the chemical explosion the grain silos explode (big white cloud).

Seems likely to be an accident.

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From what we can see in the video:

1. Fire
2. Smaller "explosions" as a result of the fire, likely from fireworks going off
3. Large explosion that leveled the port. Could have been secondary, could have been primary - we don't know because of when the video starts
4. White cloud is the pressure wave from the explosion compressing the water vapor in the atmostphere before it vaporizes due to heat and dissipates due to the concussive force of the air expanding from the explosion. But it is not a "third explosion"
5. Whole area is FUBAR'd.

If none of you have ever seen fireworks, it would be a good explanation of the maroon cloud. Lots of various chemicals in fireworks in powderized form that cause the various colors you see when a firework explodes. I would expect a mass of them together would form something like what we saw as there wan't complete burning and everything essentially got mixed together to form the maroon color.

They may not know what a nuke feels like but they sure knows what one looks like.

That was a grain silo.

FWIW. This was an elevator that exploded in Corpus.

There has to be significant damage to the Mohammad A-Amin Mosque (2/3 mile from ground zero). As much as I dislike the religion, I hate to see a beautiful piece of history damaged.

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The grain elevator didn't explode. That damage is from an external explosion knocking parts of the support structure away via the concussion.

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Possible. They are awfully stout. Look at the other photo posted here. I think an internal explosion (contained) is more likely to cause that much damage than an external that can go around.

But I have repeatedly said I'm guessing.

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Firefighters who arrived to fight the fire from the first explosion in Beirut are missing after the larger, second explosion

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Texas City, all over again.

Seeing reports that the death count is now above 50 with 2700+ injured.

I would not be surprised if the death count hits 250.

lunchbox said:

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Sad. I wonder how many fire fighters were able to make it to the scene between explosions.

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Early on The Hubs said he could see water streams and knew firefighters were the scene before the explosion.

lunchbox said:

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Seeing reports that the death count is now above 50 with 2700+ injured.

I would not be surprised if the death count hits 250.

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I'd suspect many more than that. Much like after the towers fell, the environmental air quality and other issues will sicken many many more.

lunchbox said:

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Sad. I wonder how many fire fighters were able to make it to the scene between explosions.

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If correct, it means there was a fire burning for a while before the kaboom.

aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Seeing reports that the death count is now above 50 with 2700+ injured.

I would not be surprised if the death count hits 250.

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I'd suspect many more than that. Much like after the towers fell, the environmental air quality and other issues will sicken many many more.

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Good point....plus concussive injuries due to the blast wave could lead to deaths down the road.

Just like Texas City & West.

aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Seeing reports that the death count is now above 50 with 2700+ injured.

I would not be surprised if the death count hits 250.

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I'd suspect many more than that. Much like after the towers fell, the environmental air quality and other issues will sicken many many more.

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With reports of nitric acid and a decent amount of people living around the area I think 250 is conservative, plus at least 10 fire fighters who turned into pink mist. I would not doubt if in the end you get to 500+.

aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Sad. I wonder how many fire fighters were able to make it to the scene between explosions.

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Early on The Hubs said he could see water streams and knew firefighters were the scene before the explosion.

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I don't think they're going to find them.

Unconfirmed...

P.U.T.U said:

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aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Seeing reports that the death count is now above 50 with 2700+ injured.

I would not be surprised if the death count hits 250.

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I'd suspect many more than that. Much like after the towers fell, the environmental air quality and other issues will sicken many many more.

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With reports of nitric acid and a decent amount of people living around the area I think 250 is conservative, plus at least 10 fire fighters who turned into pink mist. I would not doubt if in the end you get to 500+.

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The Lebanese Red Cross initial estimate is 2500

Slicer97 said:

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aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Sad. I wonder how many fire fighters were able to make it to the scene between explosions.

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Early on The Hubs said he could see water streams and knew firefighters were the scene before the explosion.

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I don't think they're going to find them.

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No they were vaporized in an explosion that large. At least they didn't suffer.

Yelnick McWawa said:

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P.U.T.U said:

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aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Seeing reports that the death count is now above 50 with 2700+ injured.

I would not be surprised if the death count hits 250.

---

I'd suspect many more than that. Much like after the towers fell, the environmental air quality and other issues will sicken many many more.

---

With reports of nitric acid and a decent amount of people living around the area I think 250 is conservative, plus at least 10 fire fighters who turned into pink mist. I would not doubt if in the end you get to 500+.

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The Lebanese Red Cross initial estimate is 2500

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Dead or injured?

Ddp

Rapier108 said:

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lunchbox said:

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Sad. I wonder how many fire fighters were able to make it to the scene between explosions.

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If correct, it means there was a fire burning for a while before the kaboom.

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Depends really. Following is pure guess....

• There is probably a fire fighting crew stationed at the port and they were able to respond in relatively short order.
• You can tell from majority of videos posted that folks started filming almost immediately, within minutes at most, of the first explosion/fire.
• One of the videos that shows a zoomed in view of the fire prior to secondary explosion has really good audio (the one referenced of the guy who says "what the f....". In said video you can see and hear the roar of the fire accelerating very, very rapidly until explosion.

Again, full guesswork, but it wouldn't surprise me if this thing went in less than 5 minutes.

P.U.T.U said:

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Yelnick McWawa said:

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P.U.T.U said:

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aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Seeing reports that the death count is now above 50 with 2700+ injured.

I would not be surprised if the death count hits 250.

---

I'd suspect many more than that. Much like after the towers fell, the environmental air quality and other issues will sicken many many more.

---

With reports of nitric acid and a decent amount of people living around the area I think 250 is conservative, plus at least 10 fire fighters who turned into pink mist. I would not doubt if in the end you get to 500+.

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The Lebanese Red Cross initial estimate is 2500

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Dead or injured?

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Dead. Just saw an update that said 2,200 casualties so far, number expected to be above 10,000.

Yelnick McWawa said:

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P.U.T.U said:

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Yelnick McWawa said:

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P.U.T.U said:

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aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Seeing reports that the death count is now above 50 with 2700+ injured.

I would not be surprised if the death count hits 250.

---

I'd suspect many more than that. Much like after the towers fell, the environmental air quality and other issues will sicken many many more.

---

With reports of nitric acid and a decent amount of people living around the area I think 250 is conservative, plus at least 10 fire fighters who turned into pink mist. I would not doubt if in the end you get to 500+.

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The Lebanese Red Cross initial estimate is 2500

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Dead or injured?

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Dead. Just saw an update that said 2,200 casualties so far, number expected to be above 10,000.

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Casualties usually means dead AND injured

casualty
/kaZH(oo)lt/

noun
plural noun: casualties
[ol]

a person killed or injured in a war or accident.

[/ol]

Beirut is going to look like Somalia for the extended future.

lunchbox said:

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Yelnick McWawa said:

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P.U.T.U said:

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Yelnick McWawa said:

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P.U.T.U said:

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aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Seeing reports that the death count is now above 50 with 2700+ injured.

I would not be surprised if the death count hits 250.

---

I'd suspect many more than that. Much like after the towers fell, the environmental air quality and other issues will sicken many many more.

---

With reports of nitric acid and a decent amount of people living around the area I think 250 is conservative, plus at least 10 fire fighters who turned into pink mist. I would not doubt if in the end you get to 500+.

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The Lebanese Red Cross initial estimate is 2500

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Dead or injured?

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Dead. Just saw an update that said 2,200 casualties so far, number expected to be above 10,000.

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Casualties can mean dead AND injured

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Uh, no ***** Thanks?

With over 10k casualties, 2500 dead is the estimate.

Yelnick McWawa said:

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lunchbox said:

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Yelnick McWawa said:

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P.U.T.U said:

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Yelnick McWawa said:

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P.U.T.U said:

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aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Seeing reports that the death count is now above 50 with 2700+ injured.

I would not be surprised if the death count hits 250.

---

I'd suspect many more than that. Much like after the towers fell, the environmental air quality and other issues will sicken many many more.

---

With reports of nitric acid and a decent amount of people living around the area I think 250 is conservative, plus at least 10 fire fighters who turned into pink mist. I would not doubt if in the end you get to 500+.

---

The Lebanese Red Cross initial estimate is 2500

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Dead or injured?

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Dead. Just saw an update that said 2,200 casualties so far, number expected to be above 10,000.

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Casualties can mean dead AND injured

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Uh, no ***** Thanks?

With over 10k casualties, 2500 dead is the estimate.

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Your post wasn't clear...

aggiehawg said:

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lunchbox said:

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Sad. I wonder how many fire fighters were able to make it to the scene between explosions.

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Early on The Hubs said he could see water streams and knew firefighters were the scene before the explosion.

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That's awful. And I think we all know the answer to what happened to those firefighters.

I've been on scene where a much less powerful explosion happened. I just thought there were two casualties. Turns out there was four. We never found the other two. They were standing next to the explosion.