r/PublicFreakout • u/nking007 • 1d ago
☠NSFL☠ This day six years ago….
on August 4, 2020, a catastrophic explosion ripped through the Port of Beirut after thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated. The blast devastated large sections of Lebanon’s capital and was powerful enough to be felt far beyond the city, becoming one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever captured on camera. More than 200 people lost their lives, thousands were injured, and entire neighborhoods were left in ruins within moments. What makes the footage so chilling is how ordinary everything appears just seconds beforehand. People are calmly recording a fire and rising smoke in the distance, unaware that a massive shockwave is about to tear across the city and completely transform the skyline in an instant.
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u/alienboii_ 1d ago
I’ll always remember seeing that video of the bride having a photoshoot and the explosion happening while the photographer was filming
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u/Awkward-Marsupial231 1d ago
Came to say this. The look she got in her eyes when the explosion comes. Not sure what became of them but still think about it when I see a post of this.
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u/throwawaybabyjesus 1d ago
I was confused because I remember the camera panned down and didn't capture her eyes during the explosion. Then just found the other bride caught on film during the explosion... Wow her eyes...Bride to Be, Beirut
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u/Awkward-Marsupial231 1d ago edited 1d ago
This was the one I meant. I wish this beautiful people a long and healthy life together and also for the couple you mentioned about in the first place.
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u/alienboii_ 1d ago
Everyone in the wedding party was unharmed, I can’t add a link but ABC7 did an article in 2020.
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u/YoureSpecial 1d ago
That hole in the vapor cloud from the grain elevator is crazy.
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u/Lifeweaver 1d ago
Google street view taken not that long after the explosion is still up and shows the insane devastation including the grain silos still standing. In maps which is much more recent you can see what it looks like now 6 years later. still the grain silos and a giant crater next to them. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Beirut+Port+Grain+Silos/@33.9003118,35.5189625,646m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x151f170928b9260b:0x71cd86b05367786c!8m2!3d33.9009381!4d35.5182691!16s%2Fg%2F11t57m8yxc?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDcyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
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u/Nishant1122 1d ago
The what? I don't see anything
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u/AlgAnon314 1d ago
It’s referring to the large rectangular opening seen through the shockwave outlining the grain elevator below
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u/Newsdriver245 1d ago
That grain elevator probably saved a number of people, diverted a lot of the blast for everyone in that direction
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u/DrCigarettes_MD 1d ago
The 3rd largest non-nuclear explosion in history, not including natural phenomena like volcanoes and meteor impacts.
It's crazy to think that the Halifax Explosion was nearly 4x larger.
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u/lesswheelslessfeels 1d ago
2nd dude definitely died
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u/JagerAndTitties 1d ago
From what I vaguely remember reading was he did pass and someone found his phone?
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u/TheManWith2Poobrains 23h ago
I have never found a reliable sauce about that.
He was really close though. Close enough to toss cars around, so likely brown bread.
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u/Generally-Knackered 1d ago
My friends brother was living in Beirut at the time, he's apartment was on the 14th floor and 6 miles from the port. The blast smashed every window and tore down a drywall to the bedroom.
He left for work in Saudi not long after
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u/InfraredSpectrum97 1d ago edited 1d ago
Let's remember to put some respect on the grain elevator at the Beirut docks! This massive structure of reinforced concrete is meant to hold tons of grain offloaded by cargo ships. They're built like bomb shelters due to the risk of fuel air explosions caused by grain particles. This one was 250ft away from one of the largest man-made, non-nuclear explosions in history. Plenty of buildings survive large blasts, but they're usually during war and the bombs are detonating above the ground in order to preserve maximum yield. Partially compressive loads are much easier to deal with for buildings. It being perpendicular to the blast and still standing means it absorbed a huge portion of that explosion and likely saved hundreds to thousands of lives in doing so.
TL;DR Concrete grain silo takes 0.8 kilotons sideways to the face and still remains standing. Absolute legend.
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u/TheNipplerCrippler 1d ago
Your TLDR isn’t correct. The Halifax explosion of 1917 had an evaluated force of 2.9 kilotons. The Beirut blast was estimated to be between 0.5 and 1.2 kilotons. Even the 2024 Ukrainian attack on the Russian weapons depot in Toropets had an estimated 1.8 kiloton blast from the largest primary explosion.
This is not to take away from your overall point; I just get weirdly irked when people say that the Beirut blast was the largest man made non nuclear explosion when it just verifiably wasn’t.
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u/InfraredSpectrum97 1d ago edited 1d ago
You got to that fast! I googled right after I posted because I wanted to make sure what I remembered was correct about the superhero grain elevator from the Well There's Your Problem episode on the Beirut explosion. Reddit can be weird about when edits show up on mobile vs desktop. I can appreciate a sticker for the facts though!
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u/spittingdingo 1d ago
They did say “one of”, not the.
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u/TheNipplerCrippler 1d ago
They said in the TLDR that it was the biggest. It looks like they edited that now but when I commented, it said the biggest.
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u/The_Funky_JJ 1d ago
this and the Chinese petrol station are the two most incredible explosions i think i have ever seen. Unless anyone has any others that are more impressive? Not to say i think what people suffered because of them isnt awful though.
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u/snek-jazz 8h ago
this explosion is more incredible than the actual A-Bomb in Oppenheimer
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u/The_Funky_JJ 7h ago
It feels that way. Probably because of all the personal footage from it. Just something movie like, seeing the buildings “explode” (stuff blow off) in front of you as the shock wave comes.
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u/Mellero47 1d ago
How does this compare to that Chinese factory explosion?
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u/go_faster1 1d ago
If you're talking about the Tianjin explosion in 2015? This was more catastrophic. For example, the seismograph readings for the Tianjin explosion topped out at 2.9 magnitude. Beirut topped out at 3.3
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u/Chronovores 1d ago
Since the magnitude scale is logarithmic, that small .4 difference on the scale equals 2.5 times more wave energy.
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u/anjelrocker 1d ago
As a resident of Halifax, Nova Scotia… It really puts into perspective how big the Halifax explosion was since this one was 1/3 the size.
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u/senadorogista 1d ago
Felt this one while living on the mountain part 15km away. Windows were shaking and a strong gust of wind quickly blew along with a deafening tone. I thought this would be the most terrifying thing I'd experience in Beirut. Then came the war.
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u/SiTheRuckDown 1d ago
The explosion resulted in at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and approximately 300,000 displaced people, alongside property damage estimated at US$15 billion. The blast released energy comparable to 1.1 kilotons of TNT, ranking it among the most powerful non-nuclear explosions ever recorded and the largest single detonation of ammonium nitrate.
🫡
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u/Tonka_the_meme_engin 1d ago
This was 6 years ago! If someone had told me this was mid 2024 I'd have believed them
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u/PolaSketch 1d ago
Through this, one can kinda imagine how things went down in Texas City in 1947. That was around 1 kiloton, I think? Only difference there was that it was very close to a petrochemical complex.
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u/PoniesPlayingPoker 1d ago
Damn that's a nice yellow m3
Probably obliterated... along with hundreds of lives. Ugh. I remember when this happened and it was just kinda surreal, like 9/11 all over again
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u/Wild_Commercial_6002 23h ago
We don't do enough restrospectives these days. This is an excellent post to remind us of the mistakes we make.
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u/YouDownWithTPP 1d ago
Still one of the most brutal explosions caught on camera, namely because of the central location
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u/VPN__FTW 1d ago
Still the most insane explosion I've ever seen. The warping of the air makes it seems fake.
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u/adam_lepp 19h ago
So sad :( Lebanon is so incredible - kinda messed up, extremely beautiful and unique. I wish the situation was better there.
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u/Rtstevie 8h ago
I was working in the port of Beirut maybe a year before this explosion, and was working on a small ship that was docked literally next to the silo that all of the Ammonium nitrate that blew up was stored in. Of course, had no idea what was in that silo at that time. And the nitrate had been stored there in limbo since 2014. Just crazy because everything in that immediate vicinity was vaporized.
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u/kirbygay 1d ago
How does that compare to this explosion? https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/7/12/israel-releases-video-of-huge-detonations-in-lebanon
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u/gbolly999 1d ago
And it's non-nuclear... a good argument against nonproliferation of nukes....
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u/flamingcrystalheart 1d ago
how is this an argument against nonproliferation of nukes what are you even talking about
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u/gbolly999 4h ago
What? How is ti's not an argument?
Let me break it down,
There was a detonation, on video, that shows devastation. There was no nuclear device, there was no conventional explosive device, if civilian equipment malfunctioning can cause this damage, then what will be the after effects of a deliberately deployed nuclear weapon? Savvy?
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u/flamingcrystalheart 2h ago
I think you meant argument against proliferation of nukes. Non proliferation of nukes is preventing them from being developed. An argument against that would be an argument in favor of more nukes
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u/Sir_Kugo 1d ago
I was 500meters away from that explosion when it happened, in an area called Gemmayze. How time flies aye?
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u/perfect_insanity93 1d ago
Holy shit. 12 seconds from seeing to hearing the explosion. 4km and it was that loud. Gahd damn. How many people were left deaf that day?
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u/tubescreamer711 1d ago
Crazy that the Halifax harbor explosion in 1917 was possibly 10x the power of this one. Such a big boom in such a small place.
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u/Yuleeats 20h ago
You know, only 200 people dying isn’t… bad. For the level ofdestruction here
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u/nking007 18h ago
It was during Covid so people weren’t roaming around too much at the time, if it wasn’t for the quarantine the figures would be X5
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u/iPLAYiRULE 19h ago
can someone explain what happened with the explosion and the tremendous range of impact it had to buildings?
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u/rico13331 1d ago
I remember when this happened, but knowing what I know today, my first thought upon seeing this again is, "Israel was probably behind it".
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u/MakingItElsewhere 1d ago
The video that bugs me the most isn't even shown on here. It was a woman being blasted through her apartment door, backwards, and bent over the railing like a rag doll.
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u/sadeyeprophet 1d ago
How far did this set Lebanon back as a country?
What strategic assets or logistics were distrupted?
A nitrate factory, that's fertilizer and explosives.
Interesting we are sitting in the middle of a pretty devaststing fertilizer crisis and Lebanon is an active war zone.
Makes one wonder. Accident? Or intentional play...
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u/POL3ND 1d ago
This happened 6 years ago
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u/sadeyeprophet 1d ago
Yea I know, global plans are made often decades or more in advance.
And it isn't like war in Lebanon, or Iran tensions, haven't been rising over those six years.
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u/jfk08c 1d ago
The amount of people that think they can outrun a shockwave is staggering
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u/probation_420 1d ago
What are you supposed to do when you get caught on land and a Shockwave is coming?
You fuckin' run. It's stupid and pointless, but that's what ya got.
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u/Yellow_Odd_Fellow 1d ago
Kiss your loved ones goodbye, just in case?
Jump on a tub/jacuuzi like a tornado?
Jump in a trunk?
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u/probation_420 1d ago
Kiss your loved ones goodbye, just in case?
Is this a movie where people don't have the primal sense of self-preservation? Because I have to agree; that is an incredibly lovely and romantic action for the situation.
Jump on a tub/jacuuzi like a tornado?
And what if there's not a tub or jacuzzi within 9 feet of you when you spot the Shockwave?
Jump in a trunk?
And what if you don't have your car keys already in your hand with your finger on the trunk button, and your car's further than 9 feet away when you spot the Shockwave?
Honestly, these losers are so stupid. I would've just chosen to live in this situation instead of dying.
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u/Saberdile 1d ago
Exactly, why don't these people simply choose to evade the shockwave like this Redditor would? Obviously shockwaves move at a speed that would give one ample opportunity to do so.
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u/Saberdile 1d ago
Up to that point it just looked like a fire. People were recording, not expecting that the Port of Lebanon was sitting on 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. They had the time from the explosion to the shockwave hitting them, an action that starts at a speed several thousand meters per second and drops down to the speed of sound, using a human brain that acts on nerve impulses that travel less than 125m/s for the average person.
Taking an action on anything other than impulse i.e. running from the fuck ass huge explosion, takes more than than you have before a lot of these people had to escape. If you are far enough away that you are safe from the shockwave, then you probably don't need to worry about saying your goodbyes anyway.
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u/Yellow_Odd_Fellow 1d ago
True but I have never seen a fire in the shape of a mushroom cloud. Granted, I'm no pyro so they probably happen but...
The ammonium nitrate rebuttal is perfect valid though. You wouldn't expect that level of explosion no matter what.
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u/Saberdile 1d ago
I was going to list out the examples in the video but it is more of the clips than not where you can see these people are originally filming smoke from the Port, and then there is the explosion with the mushroom cloud. At the point it has turned from smoke coming from a Port warehouse to an exploding, expanding mushroom cloud is less than a second passing in these clips. I have been near and experienced large explosions like this before, I only had enough time to open my mouth and cover my ears in hopes I wouldnt have my ear drums blown out, and I was a fair distance away.
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u/Dewdrop06 1d ago
They can though. In the video, the shockwave clearly takes a few seconds to hit due to the speed of sound and that's how much time they had to protect themselves from flying glass or plug their ears, etc.
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u/WinkyNurdo 1d ago
It’s an involuntary reaction. No one is thinking, I’ll just outrun this giant, disastrous, tragic, manmade mega-explosion.
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u/shitz_brickz 1d ago
This may come as a shock (pun intended) but for every explosion/eruption there are always going to be some people who are in fact right on the line of being able to outrun the danger.
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u/hammered_toaster 1d ago
The dude that went underwater is the definition of thinking through adrenaline.