The disaster at the port of Beirut is unbearable, joining a number of similar and bloody events in the 20th century • From Texas City to Bombay - the largest non-nuclear explosions ever

• A burning ship in Lebanon // Photo: AFP

The big explosion that took place yesterday (Tuesday) in the port of Beirut, caused enormous damage, and the explosion was even felt as an earthquake of 4.5 on the Richter scale. This is by all accounts a terrible disaster that even for a moment reminded of a nuclear explosion, due to the giant mushroom that was seen in the place. Unfortunately this is not the first time that poor storage or a technical glitch is causing a huge explosion of this kind, for all that that implies. So we decided to go back for a moment to deal with the great disasters of this kind, which have occurred in the world over the years and caused tremendous damage.

Rescue trapped in the port of Beirut

Texas City disaster

On April 16, 1947, the largest non-nuclear explosion disaster in the history of the country occurred in the United States, and probably one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. The disaster occurred when the ship "Grancan", which carried 2,100 tons of ammonium nitrate, caught fire and exploded in the city of Texas city. Worse, about 200 meters from the Grancan moored the ship "High Flair", which was loaded with 872 tons of ammonium nitrate and 1,600 tons of sulfur.

The ammonia suffocated on both ships and additional fertilizer found in warehouses at the port was packaged in paper bags and kept at temperatures that increased its chemical activity. Therefore, after the first explosion on the Grancan, there were particularly large sub-explosions and fires in which at least 581 people perished and heavy damage was done to the port and its surroundings.

About a thousand buildings in the port and in the city were demolished, including several factories and about 500 residences. Hundreds more homes were damaged and 2,000 people became homeless. Many businesses were destroyed. 1,100 vehicles and more were damaged and 362 train cars were destroyed. Property damage was estimated at $ 100 million at the same time.

The explosion at the port of Bombay

On April 14, 1944, a fire broke out in the port city of Bombay (now Mumbai) on the cargo ship Fort Stikain, carrying a huge amount of explosives and ammunition carried by Allied forces. The cargo unloading of the ship was slow and that day an uncontrollable fire broke out, which led to the explosion of explosives and a horrific disaster.

The explosions were so intense that they could be heard for 80 kilometers around and ground movement from them was felt in the city of Shimla, 1,700 kilometers away. An area of ​​about 2.5 square kilometers and an arc of about 800 meters around the center of the disaster - including some of Bombay's most developed quarters - caught fire and was destroyed. Many ships in the harbor began to sink. The emergency crew members who came to put out the fire suffered heavy losses. The number of wounded was over 2,500.

The Halifax explosion

On December 6, 1917, at 9:05 a.m., a massive explosion occurred in the Canadian port of Halifax in Nova Scotia, considered the largest non-nuclear explosion caused by humans. The blast destroyed about 1,600 homes in the port city, killing 1,635 people and injuring thousands.

The disaster occurred following the collision of the French ammunition ship "Mont Blanc" with a Norwegian ship outside the port. The two ships planned to join a convoy leaving for Europe. The Mont Blanc carried 2,147 tonnes of picric acid, 223 tonnes of TNT, 56 tonnes of benzene (petrol and toluene) and 56 tonnes of nitrocellulose.

Due to fear of submarines there were no warning flags on the ship for its materials, so instead of fleeing many curious people came to watch the ship being pushed back to port.

At 9:05 the ship exploded: more than 2.5 square kilometers from the city of Halifax were completely destroyed, the explosion even smashed windows in the city of Terror, a distance of 100 km away and the anchor of the ship Mont Blanc is five kilometers from the port. Artificial in Halifax Bay which uprooted trees, twisted railroad tracks and destroyed buildings and vessels.

The disaster killed about 1,635 people (over 1,000 people were killed immediately) and about 9,000 injured (6,000 seriously injured). An urban area of ​​about 1.3 square kilometers was completely destroyed and left 1,500 homeless people.