That’s awful.
Yeah, after I wrote out the initial question, I realized that a lot of these are probably live stream captures. I didn’t think of it at first, having never “gone live”, but I bet a lot of people were doing it after the initial explosion.
I honestly can’t think of natural disaster imagery that I found as jarring as this today. May some of the videos from the Indonesia tsunami, but that might be about it.
honestly thinking about it now, some of it is reminiscent of 9/11 videos
If the “fireworks” facility was Hezbollah ammunition, it makes perfect sense for Israel.
A lot more sense than some of the things they did for sure like having snipers shoot to maim 6392 protestors.
Heartbreaking.
Also their story shows hotel owners in Beirut who didn’t take damage are posting how many available rooms they have, all free to anyone who needs them. Home owners are offering up spare space to strangers on the Internet, just posting their phone numbers on IG and opening their doors to anyone.
This one is all people offering up their homes to strangers on IG.
the # of dead is going to rise…and a lot of these folks will never be found or identified.
What’s most tragic is that this could have been prevented.
Yeah the number is going to be massive. It’ll be weeks before they have a real handle on the death toll. So preventable, and so catastrophic to pile this on top of what was already a humanitarian crisis.
I think you underestimate the number of people who would do it. Not as many as in Lebanon, perhaps, but I think if people saw this degree of suffering in a major US city, tens of thousands would be offering up their homes.
That said, in a wealthy country a lot of people would be able to have family/friends come get them and put them up.
The person who took the fireworks(?) video could have conceivably survived the explosion it shows since it appears that’s the initial, smaller explosion that created the smoke column that got everybody else filming the site in time to capture the big one. But that only gives them a couple minutes at most between fireworks explosion and ammonium nitrate explosion to get out of the port to safety, which seems not likely.
Tragedy 
Yeah, I’ll tell you one thing, if I’m ever around any kind of explosion or fire in the future I’m getting the fuck out of the area ASAP and not standing around taking pictures. I know it’s the natural reaction these days, but this was a sad reminder of why it’s a really bad idea.
There was about 1-2 minutes between the two explosions. The “fireworks” video cuts out just after the 1st explosion. (I’m not convinced there were fireworks)
On the topic of whether the videographers survived, none of the phones were instantly smashed by the shockwave.
Absolutely this. I know my initial inclination would be to film or help in some way, but that really is not wise in a situation as volatile as this fire was. Watching a lot of the videos today and realizing they were from the perspective of someone who was likely killed by what we were watching through their eyes is totally gut wrenching.
It would have taken them close to a minute just to get off the roof. There’s no way they made it out of the port.
Any word on how long the fire was going before the largest explosion? Would people within 2 miles or so have had time to evacuate if told to do so when the fire started?
I’m far from an expert on this, but I think if you’re outside the fireball, don’t get hit by a projectile, and don’t have a building collapse on you, you have a chance. I think your body would get thrown and depending on how far away you are you might suffer internal organ damage. I have no clue how far you’d need to get from this to survive without internal damage, but at least in theory someone in the port who got far enough away to miss the fireball and away from any structures might have a chance to survive.
It’s amazing that one nerd calculated the yield at 2,800 tons, rounded up to 3k, then we hear there was 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate there.
I put 2.8 kilotons in a nuclear blast damage calculator:
Peak overpressure:20 psi
Distance from the explosion site: 0.3 Kilometers / 0.19 Miles
Damage and injuries:Heavily built concrete buildings are severely damaged or demolishedPeak overpressure:10 psi
Distance from the explosion site: 0.4 Kilometers / 0.25 Miles
Damage and injuries:Reinforced concrete buildings are severely damaged or demolished. Most people are killed.Peak overpressure:5 psi
Distance from the explosion site: 0.6 Kilometers / 0.37 Miles
Damage and injuries:Most buildings collapse. Injuries are universal, fatalities are widespread.Peak overpressure:3 psi
Distance from the explosion site: 0.9 Kilometers / 0.56 Miles
Damage and injuries: Residential structures collapse. Serious injuries are common, fatalities may occur.Peak overpressure:1 psi
Distance from the explosion site: 2.0 Kilometers / 1.24 Miles
Damage and injuries: Window glass shatters Light injuries from fragments occur.
So basically you have to be a quarter mile away to have any chance, half a mile to be a favorite to live.
That said, if there are concrete structures between you and the blast, they could absorb some of the force and weaken what hits you, right?
Eh, I gotta nit this up, but 2,800 tons of ammonium nitrate is not the equivalent of 2,800 tons of TNT.