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Why was so much NH4 stored in one place? Did a shipment of that size just arrive or has it been building up a stockpile? It is end of summer here in America, no

Why was so much NH4 stored in one place? Did a shipment of that size just arrive or has it been building up a stockpile? It is end of summer here in America, not sure what season is approaching outdoor Lebanese fertilizer schedules. Abundance of summertime high energy (summer solstice increased photovoltaic potential) could be the reason so much was purchased cheaply (infinite shelf life?)

baryphonic 6y ago
From what I've read, the supply had been in this warehouse for quite a while, having been seized from a Russian freighter that owed port fees or something. Certain people kept prodding the powers that be to take care of the situation before something disastrous happened, and they were not heeded.
brazzy 6y ago
It had been sitting in that warehouse since 2014, seized from a cargo ship.
- moneytide1 6y ago
  I wonder if "sitting" because infinite loop bureaucracy ("seize" means potentially murky waters of international maritime law). From an economics standpoint - inefficient to leave energy dense "fuel" idle without being put to use for such a long period.
gwd 6y ago
The road to last week’s tragedy began seven years ago, when the Rhosus, a Russian-chartered, Moldovan-flagged vessel carrying ammonium nitrate from Georgia to Mozambique, docked in Beirut to try to take on extra cargo to cover the fees for passage through the Suez Canal, according to the ship’s captain. Port authorities impounded the Rhosus in December 2013 by judicial order 2013/1031 due to outstanding debts owed to two companies that filed claims in Beirut courts, the state security report showed. In May 2014, the ship was deemed unseaworthy and its cargo was unloaded in October 2014 and warehoused in what was known as Hangar 12. In February 2015, Nadim Zwain, a judge from the Summary Affairs Court, which deals with urgent issues, appointed an expert to inspect the cargo, according to the security report. The report said the expert concluded that the material was hazardous and, through the port authorities, requested it be transferred to the army. Reuters could not independently confirm the expert’s account. Lebanese army command rejected the request and recommended the chemicals be transferred or sold to the privately owned Lebanese Explosives Company, the state security report said. The report did not say why the army had refused to accept the cargo. A security official told Reuters it was because they didn’t need it. The army declined to comment. The explosives company’s management told Reuters it had not been interested in purchasing confiscated material and the firm had its own suppliers and government import licences. From then on, customs and security officials wrote to judges roughly every six months asking for the removal of the material, according to the requests seen by Reuters. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lebanon-security-blast-documents-excl/exclusive-lebanons-leaders-warned-in-july-about-explosives-at-port-documents-idUKKCN2562L3 https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lebanon-security-blast-doc... It's not clear to me why, if they knew it was dangerous and had been asking for it to be removed for years, they decided to store fireworks in the same building.
- grandinj 6y ago
  Probably because "they" is a group of people/teams and knowledge is not evenly distributed, nor is responsibility concentrated in the right places. This is a classic example of "normal failure" and I am sure will join other similar incidents in the literature.
  - TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
    Storing the ammonium nitrate in a single location was bad enough. Storing fireworks in the same warehouse complex was - I honestly can't think of a word that fits.
    - grandinj 6y ago
      It's pretty easy - the fireworks were probably a pretty small shipment, and were loaded along with a bunch of other shipments into an anjoining warehouse. I realise this seems weird to people living in a country which has all sorts of extremely restrictive and impressive safety protocols, but in poorer countries, this kind of mistake happens __all the time__. It just doesn't normally result in much more than a small fire.
      - avh02 6y ago
        The (more local) news I'm reading, it was apparently known to be dangerous immediately, and regularly reported (~twice a year), just never actioned to remove it. To me that's where the criminal responsibility lies. The beating-around-the-bush has begun though. Port authorities (who were the ones reporting the danger) were arrested. skimmed, since I'm on the clock, but holds the key info: https://www.mtv.com.lb/en/News/Local/1088201/Lebanons-leaders-warned-in-July-about-explosives-at-port---Reuters https://www.mtv.com.lb/en/News/Local/1088201/Lebanons-leader...
    - gwd 6y ago
      > Storing fireworks in the same warehouse complex was - I honestly can't think of a word that fits. And on top of that, according to the article, the fire was started by welders who were trying to repair doors to make the ammonium nitrate secure. It's like the plot of some dumb bloke movie: so absurd it would be comic if it weren't so terrible.

baryphonic 6y ago

From what I've read, the supply had been in this warehouse for quite a while, having been seized from a Russian freighter that owed port fees or something. Certain people kept prodding the powers that be to take care of the situation before something disastrous happened, and they were not heeded.

brazzy 6y ago

It had been sitting in that warehouse since 2014, seized from a cargo ship.

moneytide1 6y ago
I wonder if "sitting" because infinite loop bureaucracy ("seize" means potentially murky waters of international maritime law). From an economics standpoint - inefficient to leave energy dense "fuel" idle without being put to use for such a long period.

gwd 6y ago

The road to last week’s tragedy began seven years ago, when the Rhosus, a Russian-chartered, Moldovan-flagged vessel carrying ammonium nitrate from Georgia to Mozambique, docked in Beirut to try to take on extra cargo to cover the fees for passage through the Suez Canal, according to the ship’s captain. Port authorities impounded the Rhosus in December 2013 by judicial order 2013/1031 due to outstanding debts owed to two companies that filed claims in Beirut courts, the state security report showed. In May 2014, the ship was deemed unseaworthy and its cargo was unloaded in October 2014 and warehoused in what was known as Hangar 12. In February 2015, Nadim Zwain, a judge from the Summary Affairs Court, which deals with urgent issues, appointed an expert to inspect the cargo, according to the security report. The report said the expert concluded that the material was hazardous and, through the port authorities, requested it be transferred to the army. Reuters could not independently confirm the expert’s account. Lebanese army command rejected the request and recommended the chemicals be transferred or sold to the privately owned Lebanese Explosives Company, the state security report said. The report did not say why the army had refused to accept the cargo. A security official told Reuters it was because they didn’t need it. The army declined to comment. The explosives company’s management told Reuters it had not been interested in purchasing confiscated material and the firm had its own suppliers and government import licences. From then on, customs and security officials wrote to judges roughly every six months asking for the removal of the material, according to the requests seen by Reuters. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lebanon-security-blast-documents-excl/exclusive-lebanons-leaders-warned-in-july-about-explosives-at-port-documents-idUKKCN2562L3 https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lebanon-security-blast-doc... It's not clear to me why, if they knew it was dangerous and had been asking for it to be removed for years, they decided to store fireworks in the same building.

grandinj 6y ago
Probably because "they" is a group of people/teams and knowledge is not evenly distributed, nor is responsibility concentrated in the right places. This is a classic example of "normal failure" and I am sure will join other similar incidents in the literature.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
  Storing the ammonium nitrate in a single location was bad enough. Storing fireworks in the same warehouse complex was - I honestly can't think of a word that fits.
  - grandinj 6y ago
    It's pretty easy - the fireworks were probably a pretty small shipment, and were loaded along with a bunch of other shipments into an anjoining warehouse. I realise this seems weird to people living in a country which has all sorts of extremely restrictive and impressive safety protocols, but in poorer countries, this kind of mistake happens __all the time__. It just doesn't normally result in much more than a small fire.
    - avh02 6y ago
      The (more local) news I'm reading, it was apparently known to be dangerous immediately, and regularly reported (~twice a year), just never actioned to remove it. To me that's where the criminal responsibility lies. The beating-around-the-bush has begun though. Port authorities (who were the ones reporting the danger) were arrested. skimmed, since I'm on the clock, but holds the key info: https://www.mtv.com.lb/en/News/Local/1088201/Lebanons-leaders-warned-in-July-about-explosives-at-port---Reuters https://www.mtv.com.lb/en/News/Local/1088201/Lebanons-leader...
  - gwd 6y ago
    > Storing fireworks in the same warehouse complex was - I honestly can't think of a word that fits. And on top of that, according to the article, the fire was started by welders who were trying to repair doors to make the ammonium nitrate secure. It's like the plot of some dumb bloke movie: so absurd it would be comic if it weren't so terrible.