The 10 firefighters who received the call just before 6pm – warning of a major fire at the nearby port of Beirut – could not know what was waiting for them.
The brigade of nine men and one woman could not know about the supply of ammonium nitrate stored since 2013 along a busy highway in the heart of a densely populated residential area – a danger that only grew with each passing year.
She and almost the entire population of Beirut were simply unaware. They were not envious of the warnings received by authorities, over and over again, and ignored: ammonium nitrate is highly explosive, used in fertilizers and sometimes to build bombs. The supply was humiliating; something has to happen.
They knew, of course, that living in a dysfunctional country, their government smelled of corruption, factionalism and negligence causing so much pain and heartbreak. But they could not know that it would lead to the worst one-day disaster in the tragic history of Lebanon.
Throughout the city, residents who noticed the gray smoke across the facility were rushed to streets, balconies and windows, and looked envious as the fire got bigger. Phones were taken out of the pockets and pointed to the flames.
The firefighters got into a fire engine and an ambulance and drove to the scene, and to their punishment.
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Seven years ago, a ship named Rhosus set sail from the Georgian port of Black Sea in Batumi with 2,755.5 tons of ammonium nitrate destined for an explosive device in Mozambique.
It made an unplanned detour, stopping in Beirut on November 19, 2013. The Russian owner of the ship struggled with debt and hoped to earn extra money by adopting pieces of heavy machinery in Lebanon. That extra cargo proved too heavy for the Rhosus and the crew refused to accept it.
The Rhosus was soon imposed by Lebanese authorities for not paying port costs. It has never left the harbor; it sank there in February 2018, according to Lebanese official documents.
The Port of Beirut is considered to be one of the most corrupt institutions in a country where almost every public institution is riddled with corruption. For years, Lebanon’s ruling political factions have divided positions in the port and handed them over to supporters – because they have national ministries, public companies and other facilities.
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The first known warning came on February 21, 2014, three months after the ship docked at the port.
In a letter to the customs anti-smuggling department, former customs official Col. Joseph Skaff that the material on board was “extremely dangerous and threatened public safety.”
In the years that followed, Skaff’s letter was followed by other correspondence that went on and on between top officials and port officials and members of the judiciary and the army.
A chemical forensic expert, commissioned by the courts and the owners of the ammonium nitrate, got a glimpse of the stockpile after it was moved to Warehouse 12 in the port in October 2014.
It was “in terrible shape,” she said in her February 2015 report. Most of the bags – they estimate more than 1,900 out of a total of 2,750 – were torn open, their contents spilled out.
Her report was unveiled by Riad Kobaissi, an investigative reporter with Al Jadeed TV who has been following corruption at the port and within the customs authorities since 2012.
Customs chief Shafeeq Merhi and his successor, Badri Daher, sent several letters to the Courts of Urgent Matters in the following years, warning of the danger.
Daher told the AP and other media that he never received a response from the court. But Kobaissi, the investigative reporter, found documents showing that the court answered each time that it had no jurisdiction and that the Ministry of Public Works had to decide.
The Ministry of Public Works and Transport did not respond to requests for comment.
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On the afternoon of August 4, security officials say, three metalworkers who had been working for several days to repair the broken door No. 9 of Warehouse 12 finished work and left the facility.
The cause of the original fire has not yet been determined and is the heart in the current investigation. Some have questioned whether the welding may have contained supplies of flammable liquids used in making detergents, such as tons of fireworks that were also stored in Warehouse 12. The metalworkers, who were hired to repair the door by the port authorities in response to the security report, have been detained for questioning, according to security officials.
There was a first explosion, which shattered debris into the air.
Twelve seconds later, at 18:08, the ammonium nitrate exploded in one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded.
In an instant saw an explosion with the power of hundreds of tons of TNT in the air – one video exploded a window of the luxury store to the outside of the sucker, spitting a bride and groom and taking their wedding video on the sidewalk outside – and then unleash his power over the city.
Long miles ran in people’s houses and in shops and hospitals windows were smashed, doors slammed into their hinges, ceilings or walls that were inside.
The destruction was unimaginable – even for a city like Beirut, plagued by civil war and past conflicts.
“I thought it was the end of Beirut when the end of the world when the war started,” said Alaa Saad, who was diving with his friends, about 1.5 kilometers off the coast of Beirut.
More than 6,000 people were injured, and at least 180 were killed – including the top 10 respondents.
It would take days of searching before colleagues found all their bodies in the pun.
