Beirut: five of the worst non-nuclear explosions in history

The tragedy in the port of Beirut, which killed more than 130 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless, amazed the world with its scale and even sparked unfounded rumors of a nuclear outbreak. But explosions with hundreds of dead, destroying neighborhoods and entire cities, occur not only due to geopolitics, but also due to human errors and violations of security rules. Edition with the BBC named five large-scale non-nuclear disasters related to explosives.

Photo: Shutterstock

All of them occurred due to a fatal coincidence of circumstances and human errors - from a thrown cigarette butt to a pilot’s mistake, but at one time they gave rise to military rumors, and also had serious political consequences.

Collision at Halifax (1917)

On December 6, 1917, at the entrance to the port of Halifax in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, two foreign ships met - the French military ship Mont Blanc with explosives on board, sailing from New York to Bordeaux, and the Norwegian steamer Imo, which was carrying food to Belgium.

"Mont Blanc" entered the port, and "Imo" left it exceeding speed. Each of the crews of both ships believed that they should give way. As a result, the ships came together too close. At first, the collision was avoided, but then the "Imo" still crashed into a French ship, which led to a leak of benzene.

When the colliding ships were disengaged, a sheaf of sparks arose, benzene vapors ignited, and a fire that began on the ship led to an explosion of unprecedented force. The northern part of the city fell into ruins. Almost 2 thousand people died, including hundreds of children and adolescents in school buildings destroyed by the explosion. In total, up to 10 thousand people were injured. Shrapnel from broken glass injured the eyes of about 600 people, and many of the onlookers who watched the fire from the windows lost their sight.

Canadian historian Jack White believes that the tragedy in Halifax was the most powerful explosion in history before the appearance of nuclear weapons in five parameters: the number of victims, the force of the explosion, the radius of destruction, the volume of explosives and the total value of the destroyed property.

“We made our way through streets and paths littered with debris. Here and there, dead bodies were visible on piles of black matter. Everything around became dark due to smoke or was engulfed in fire from burning debris,” recalled a doctor who arrived in the city on the day of the tragedy.

On the subject: Explosion in Beirut: where the mushroom cloud and red smoke came from

Immediately after the explosion, Halifax was flooded with rumors of German bombing and the actions of German spies. The helmsman of the Norwegian steamer, who was in the hospital, was arrested, and a “letter in German” was seized from him, which turned out to be Norwegian.

Long trials ruled that the crews of both ships bore equal blame for the collision.

Explosion at a factory in Oppau (1921)

The BASF chemical plant in Oppau, Germany in 1921 was a center for the production of explosives, poisonous gases and fertilizers - a mixture of ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate (the latter also called ammonium nitrate - the same substance that exploded in Beirut).

Fertilizer supplies were stored in a clay quarry, where they inevitably hardened. It was too dangerous to send workers into the quarry - they could end up buried alive. Therefore, saltpeter was taken out of the quarry using small explosions, despite the knowledge of its explosiveness.

On September 21, 1921, such an operation led to the detonation of the fertilizer stock in the storage facility - 4,5 thousand tons of ammonium sulfate and nitrate. However, some experts believe that only a small part of these reserves could explode - about 10%.

As a result of the explosion, according to various sources, from 500 to 600 people were killed, almost 2 thousand were injured, and three quarters of the working-class city were wiped off the face of the earth. Settlements located tens of kilometers from the explosion site experienced significant destruction.

“Thirty-six hours later, the groans and cries of the wounded continue to be heard from the crater-like gaping hole at the site of the Badishe plant,” wrote the New York Times two days after the disaster.

But small explosions were carried out in Oppau almost 20 thousand times, so there are different versions of what went wrong in September 1921. Among the factors are the unusually hot summer, errors in the storage and processing of fertilizer, as well as an underestimation of the detonation capacity of ammonium nitrate.

Explosion in Port Chicago (1944)

On the evening of July 17, 1944, at the height of World War II, sailors loaded 10 kilotons of ammunition, including explosives and bombs, onto two US Navy transport ships in Port Chicago, California.

At some point, an explosion of incredible force occurred on one of the ships - more powerful than in the port of Beirut. He killed all 320 sailors on both ships. The explosion practically destroyed the town of Port Chicago. 390 people were injured. The bodies of the dead sailors were found a mile from the explosion site.

“All the buildings have been mutilated beyond recognition. All the windows were broken. “I’m trying to type this story on the only typewriter left in the city in a warehouse that is a pile of rubble,” a San Francisco Chronicle reporter wrote from the scene.

When the port reopened in early August, 258 black sailors refused to load ammunition for fear of another explosion—an event that became known as the “Port Chicago Riot.” They indicated that they had not received any training before being sent to load explosives.

When the command announced that it viewed their actions as disobeying orders, 208 sailors returned to work. They were subsequently dismissed from the navy in disgrace.

The remaining 50 refused and appeared before a military court. They were sentenced to terms ranging from 8 to 15 years of hard labor. After two years, the term was reduced, and most were released. In 1999, President Bill Clinton formally pardoned the only survivor of 50 convicted sailors.

The investigation was never able to establish a specific cause of the explosion.

Explosion in Texas City (1947)

The Texas City Port tragedy is one of the worst fertilizer explosions (along with the Oppau and Beirut disasters). In terms of the number of victims, it remains the deadliest man-made disaster in US history.

On the subject: Destructive explosion in Beirut: 20 videos of the tragedy filmed by local residents

The explosion occurred on April 16, 1947 as a result of a fire on the French ship "Grancan" while loading fertilizers onto it. When the fire broke out, more than 2 thousand tons of ammonium nitrate were loaded on the ship.

The explosion on the Grankan caused a detonation on neighboring ships and a fire at oil refineries on the shore. The anchor of a French vessel weighing 1,5 tons was found more than three kilometers from the explosion site.

As a result of the disaster, more than 580 people died, including 27 professional firefighters and three volunteers, and more than 3,5 thousand were injured.

Some eyewitnesses to the tragedy recalled that because of the "mushroom" from the explosion, they took it for a nuclear attack by the USSR.

Investigations have shown that a cigarette may have been the cause of the fire. Additional factors were violations of safety rules during storage of fertilizers and errors in extinguishing a fire at Grankan.

The victims of the blast filed the first class action lawsuit in US history against the federal government. The court dismissed the claim, but Congress passed a compensation bill.

Explosion in Tianjin (2015)

In terms of the number of victims, the explosion in the port of Tianjin, China, is one of the deadliest disasters involving industrial chemicals, although it is significantly inferior in the power of the explosion.

Two explosions with a difference of half a minute thundered on August 12, 2015. It all started with the burning of overheated containers in the sun in a local port, and the fire led to an explosion of ammonium nitrate and other chemicals in warehouses.

As a result, 173 people died, including 104 firefighters and 11 police officers. Also injured were 798 people, mostly residents of apartment buildings near warehouses. More than 12 thousand cars were destroyed by explosions and fire.

In 2016, a court in Tianjin sentenced the chairman of a logistics company that owned the warehouses to death, with a two-year deferral. He was found guilty of paying bribes for the illegal placement of toxic and explosive chemicals at the port.

Another 48 local officials and employees of private companies were convicted of bribery, abuse of office and abuse of power.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• 4 of August in the capital of Lebanon in the port explosion thundered - one of the strongest in modern history, which happened among residential buildings.
• The ammonium nitrate that exploded at the port in Beirut was confiscated from the Rhosus ship back in September 2014. AND the owner of this vessel was a Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin from Khabarovsk.
• As of August 6, as a result of a large-scale explosion in the port of Beirut, at least 157 people were killed and about 5 were injured.
• 20 videos of the tragedy, filmed by local residents, see our material.
• A Beirut couple whose apartment is located approximately 2000 feet (600 m) from the site of the powerful blast, underwent a total of nine hours of surgery.

Read also on ForumDaily:

'Lucky to be alive': a couple injured in an explosion in Beirut endured 9 hours of operations

Explosion in Beirut: where the mushroom cloud and red smoke came from

Nuclear America: 10 Interesting Facts About US Nuclear Weapons

Destructive explosion in Beirut: 20 videos of the tragedy filmed by local residents

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