The Beirut Port Explosion: The Welders (English)
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- čas přidán 12. 02. 2023
- © Forensic Architecture and Febrayer Network 2023
This investigation marks the launch of the Febrayer Network / Forensic Architecture (FFA) Investigative Lab, collaboratively established to employ Forensic Architecture’s methodologies and techniques for monitoring and documenting human rights violations in pursuit of accountability in the Arab world.
This investigation is also part of a broader project examining the 4 August 2020 explosion in the port of Beirut, its causes and aftermath. See also: • The Beirut Port Explos...
Read more about the investigation here: forensic-architecture.org/inv...
Inquiries contact: info [at] forensic-architecture.org
The Beirut explosion investigation video you guys made is one of the most detailed and most organized analysis of the disaster by far, and it's good to see you guys are still investigating more of it.
Yet this missed the most important factor! The grain towers!!!!!!!
@@kinzieconrad105grain towers?
@@0q2628 I'm assuming they're refering to the large bank of grain silos visible adjacent the warehouse. As a result of the explosion they were severely damaged and destroyed and burned for about a week before they could get it out. On top of the resources spent fighting the fire additional to the explosion the worst thing was of course losing essentially the entirety of the countries food reserve in the middle of the pandemic.
On the flip side the grain silo being there likely saved many more lives as it bore much of the impact along that front.
Disastrous white people. All it is.
@@k1ng5urfer i wonder how it didn't completely turn into dust
Let's take a second and assume it WAS the welding work which started the fire:
Why blame the welders actually? They are welders and not chemists. They had no responsability of how the items were stored in the warehouse, and no responsability to clear it either.
It's like accusing the garbage truck driver of spilling cooking oil from the truck, and not the ones that put the cooking oil inside the garbage bin..
It's backwards, and deflective..
Why blame the fire on somebody when not that wasn't the first issue to begin with...
The explosion happened in 2020.. the warehouse was investigated in 2014, and another report of foul storage was also issued in 2015.. so not the 2020 welding works were the issue to begin with.
Amazing analysis as always guys. Keep up the investigations!
one word: "scapegoats!"
Exactly.
Also, never get politicians involved… they find reasons to bury the truth of what happened.
Even on USCSB videos where welding sparks cause massive explosions - I have yet to see one where they go "welding was the problem." It's always some asshole who made a super-unsafe working environment for the welders.
This is victim blaming at its finest.
01:38 What still infuriates me is that they (the corrupt ones that CAUSED this) are still trying to shift the blame to some workers that have nothing and use them as escape goat
As a scape goat lol
Welcome to Lebanon....Where it's the norm to tell as many lies as possible & blame as many other people as possible in order to save your own skin....
The fact this title of this video isnt ‘improper storage of dangerous materials by government officials’ lost any credibility from the start
@@skylercawthorn3563 not entirely untrue, sadly. :( the way things are going on local levels, especially what happened in East Palestine, Ohio, this kind of disaster is awaiting to happen.
can't be worse than US media @@_Ben4810
5:08 fireworks, tyres, ammonium nitrate. It's like they put all the most flammable stuff in one place, it's like a cartoon.
Looney Tunes music starts playing
@@mat__w That's all, folks!
usually that's what you do when storing dangerous materials, the tyres maybe just bulk to fill the space
Excellent presentation! The graphics you created overlayed seamlessly with the photos, enabling us to clearly understand your line of reasoning. Thank you
This is an excellently produced and detailed video report on the topic. Really should be one of the first to appear in the YT search. Nice work!!!
1:06 Whoever was live-streaming that video could not possibly have survived.
There are a lot of videos from people within 600m of the explosion. Unfortunately, most of these were people killed and their phones were found in rubble.
Excellent video and analysis. One of the root causes was bad government policy and administration. Allowing the storage of 2,700 tons of explosive materials for several years is a key issue.
I say the welders were victims.. Who ever owns or is in charge of the chemicals and/or warehouse should be to blame.. As well as people at the top that knew it was there but didn't check on it and make sure it was up to standard.
I’m not an explosives “expert,” but upon first viewing, the orange smoke to me said Ammonium Nitrate. The smoke color and the violence of the explosion as a regular citizen with somewhat of a sense of explosions said it was a large delivery of the stuff.
Cargo holding by the country’s customs IMO is to blame for holding fireworks next to bags of an already known explosive in large quantities.
Do I feel bad for the unintended victims, hell yes!
As for the local government, they should’ve held accountable to the fertilizer in their holding facility.
Thanks for the update video. I'm curious, in the time since the initial release, I have seen other new video angles that don't appear in part 1 of your investigation analysis video. I would be curious to see an update that includes these new video angles.
I was under the impression that stored fireworks were involved. Great graphics. Government investigations are more about covering for certain people and finding scapegoats to blame. Thank you.
Origin in or around the tires based on video. Specific cause of ignition unknown. Spread to fireworks, most likely via radiant heat causing paper containers to catch fire. If there were tires on their wheel rims filled with air, eventually those tires would explode from built up pressure sending flaming particles. Either way, fireworks cook off eventually one landing on the AN resulting in big boom.
It doesn't really matter who or what caused the fire. This was really a huge mismanagement of extremely explosive material near a major city. Even if the welders were at fault, they can not be blamed for the scale of the outcome. Otherwise, good work or trying to clear their names.
Well designed video comparing the animations to source material! Thank you all for that!
the fire could have started at 9 like the fbi said, but it got heated and spread heavily upwards, fire is unpredictable, we cant deny that 9 is not the cause if there were no footage.
it could have started there, brought it up north and put off in 9.
Incredible analysis. What a huge explosion it was. When I first saw it ,I was like at awe of the energy it released. RIP to all those souls which were lost on that tragic day. I was a wrlder for many years and the amount of dangerous places I was in is actually more often than people really realize. I'm glad they were found innocent
You know CZcams has come a long way when you can find investigations in this quality with custom-made visualization tools. It's perfectly reasoned to trust over the noted reports.
I wouldn't go that far... you can just as easily find men dressing as gamer girls to troll social media web sites, flat earthers, people trolling flat earthers and people lighting their own farts.
This was entertaining, but to an actual investigator such as myself, I take umbrage at your calling this video production an investigation.
They did NOT conduct an investigation, they cited portions of the reports, had a fire simulation done, and then they merely performed CONJECTURE.
We actual investigators have two sayings that pertain to this video:
1. Evidence never lies, though it'is sometimes mis-interpreted.
2. Allegations are not evidence.
I'm sure this was entertaining, so the lay public enjoyed it. I watched it, but mostly waiting for anything actually qualifying as evidence.
Literally done the work the Lebanese FBI and French reports didn’t do! Thank you 🙏🏿
More amazing work, thank you.
Has there also been any information on the people recording the early stages of the fire at very close range? There was a photograph of 3 firemen prying open the warehouse doors who are confirmed dead, with the photographer also presumed dead as well, but I wasn't able to find any definite proof about the videos themselves.
It's sobering to understand that anyone who was filming close to the scene is almost certainly dead - what we see is effectively these people in the very last moments of their life. I can only hope that the end came so fast they had little time to realize it and, most of all, that they did not suffer. I'm reminded of the firefighters who entered the World Trade Center in NYC - people who came only to help and to save others, and sacrificed their lives for it.
Yeah that's found footage as in a whole crew was killed.
@@Lucifer-qt9ghtry again, but in English ... 🤔
I feel like it was started intentionally. The welders was a scape goat.
Reality doesn't care about your feeling.
@@ossian108 Remember when people began sentences with "I think" instead of "I feel". I miss those days.
Excellent analysis. I appreciate you for the time and research you put into this, also having actual footage to further validate your computer model when supporting the findings and explaining the errors within the official report. What I am saying is I nerded out with the smartness because it allows the viewer to know the facts and concur rather than just taking your word, which I'm sure was no accident.
Breaks my heart knowing that most of the video footage here was made by people who would never survive the blast..
Anyone interested in learning how to reason should watch this video and learn the difference between forensic analysis and emotionalism.
Great video and breakdown!
these are awesome illustrations thank you
How dare they blame the welders when what was in that wear house should have never been there
The Blame Game. Once started in modern social media times it is a difficult thing to stop.
Nicely done! ✅
Very impressive analysis and accompanying video/computer model orientation.
Keep up the good work.
What a great job guys!
Fascinating. So many questions.
Amazing!
Oddly I never even heard the narrative of the welders being blamed, I saw some pretty in depth videos on how the nitrate got "stuck there", and how conditions were basically worst case to store it and how it was political bs keeping it there.
I love forensics... I just love them... They give redemption to the ones who perished and justice to the real assassins. I was so shocked....for the devastation of Beirut, I couldn't believe it.. May God forgive the lost souls. May God revenge those who killed the innocents in vain.
I’ve been in Welder for 35 years, even a beginner knows to even look around for paint or gasoline or anything flammable at all. Welding near bags of ammonium nitrate is insane. It looks like the tires were what started this. They were focusing on some sort of massive heat source, so the welders were blamed.
I agree that the welders should have been aware of flammable materials nearby, but how could tires "cause" a fire? They alone are not a heat source.
@@pat8988 It sounds like a misunderstanding. Most sources say the fireworks "caused" the fire by being the first things lit. This comment makes the point that the "cause" was instead the tires. In that the tires were the first thing to be set alight. It's not that the tires set the fire, but that's the location where the fire started.
Yes, they are not a heat source, but that's not the point being made. It's the location. It's easier to say it started with the tires than to say it started in the NE corner approx. 32 meters from...
The blame is not by what or who started the fire. The blame is to who stored 2,750 fucking tonnes of ammonium nitrate in a seaport.
Don't forget about the fact of not properly documented nitrate, not stored properly, nor even documented with government.
Great presentation and beautiful voice..
This is an extremely well-produced and well-argued video -- highly entertaining and highly persuasive. I just wonder if it proves ... well, anything, really. Anyone who welds will know that embers from the process can and do become quite mobile -- almost fluid -- if the airflow conditions are conducive to it, as they obviously were in this building. In which case it would be a relatively straightforward proposition for an ember from welding at one location in the building might alight at a different part of the building. This would explain why the fire wasn't immediately extinguished, since any fire localized to the actual site of the welding work would have been noticeable almost immediately. But much more to the point, the conclusion that the fire wasn't started by the welders begs the un-considered question of how it *was* started, otherwise. If, as is reported here, the police were present and restricting access to and movement through the building, then it seems doubtful that others would have had much of an opportunity.
tl;dr : There's nothing here that rules out the welders, and no counter-explanation is proposed.
very good video
Your assumption that because the welding work was not directly near the greatest conflagration it couldn’t have been the origin is faulty.
Considering the pictures of that dirty and cluttered warehouse interior I’ve seen, the original fire may have started as a typical moderate mixed debris and old fluid (like spilled hydraulic) fire from careless hot work and spread to the tires in a relatively short time.
These kinds of fires are not all that uncommon in abandoned or poorly maintained shop and warehouses. But became a nightmare of fire, high heat, and heavy smoke only upon reaching a heavy and difficult to extinguish fuel source.
This happens in old cities in the US, where abandoned factories and warehouses have homeless or drug users who accidentally start a fire in one area that spreads through the debris, but isn’t a massive fire. Yet. The open architecture of steel and concrete often keeps it on the ground a bit like a grass fire.
That is, until it hits something significantly more combustible that’s available in large volume, like pallets of old paint.
Or piles of old tires…
And in occupied warehouses or large shops, the folks that cause the fire often try to extinguish it themselves because they don’t want to get in trouble and are in a bit of a panic. In doing so wasting precious minutes as they run around trying to find an extinguisher, throwing their Gatoraid on it, or even trying to stomp it out or kicking burning bits around. Grabbing their gear and equipment and dragging it to safety.
Until it’s spread too far and the smoke, while not pouring heavily out of windows, is too much to endure, and forcing them to evacuate and finally call 911.
And by the time the fire department arrives it’s now a raging fire, not necessarily where it started, which may have even exhausted its fuel and petered out, but where the spreading fire found a nice big pile of combustible material.
How easy to blame the lowest man on the totem pole ….
So no fault on who stored the fire works and the tons of fertilizer. No blame gos to the management who brought the welders in to repair the doors. Hhhhmmmmmm sounds like the 1% of Lebanon is still manufacturing scape goats. Isn’t it true that those combustible items where to be moved ages ago? But the higher ups. Had the hands in kitty. And there 2as no budget to separate and move those items to a far less populated area? And of course the evil culprits are from Syria. Hhhhmmmmmmmmm. Nothing has change. Upper management, where accountability goes to die. That’s the smell, that’s accountability rotting in the corner. Somebody took the money for the funeral and plot.
The bags the chemicals were in looked rough also... Not a good way of handling something so dangerous
Having both Ammonium Nitrate and fireworks stored in the same building is just a recipe for disaster to begin with but to add welders and their sparks was just mind boggling. Could this disaster have been prevented? Yes if everyone involved would have actually thought this through enough to say "I don't think welding in here is a very good idea". The AN was stored there for years before this accident under not so good of conditions. It all contributed to it.
How was the video footage from the worker on the neighbouring building retrieved? Was his smartphone found in low earth orbit?
The idea that anyone in this close to that horrendous explosion might have survived seems incredible. A very saddening thought.
it was said that the AN did not detonate until an hour - 1.5 , after the fire started. so like the welders they arrested later ( alive) the phone owner left the area, before the blast.
As already stated in other videos, that massive amount of contaminated ammoniumnitrate was lingering there since 2013, several warning were given out to the highest authorities and the either ignored it or did not took it seriously enough. If i had contaminated explosives sitzing there in that amount of quantity, i would at least try to reduce the amount over time with controlled explosions at a safe spot. Getting rid of one bag per day would have helped preventing such a thing from happening. Its easy to say such things afterwards, but how did this all develop in this way is still mysterious
So what started the fire? Great video!
You can ID the places in the US where Stryker parts are gathered by the piles of tires kept OUTSIDE THE WAREHOUSE at all times.
Unfortunately, Governments prefer an easy to write off explanation.
Ok.. It had been stored for years with no incident.. The day welders are there to fix gates...suddenly the building catches fire.. Sometimes sparks from welders can ignite fires that can smoulder for up to 24 h...
The NH4NO3 should never had been stored so close to the city.....
What an artist. These reconstruction are amazing
I think, after watching this video, it was the flash over where everything catches on fire due to the extreme head in the area.
CZcams title says "the welders".
Video says "not the welders".
Weird. Someone is stealing copyright content?
Cool
never seen such good analysis video, holyshit
200+ dead? that's horrific, but MUCH lower than i thought
WOW
I guess I miss understood. I thought she said the true cause of the fire was from the sun. If That is what is being tauted, it is impossible to generate that much heat unless there was a giant magnifying glass above the warehouse.
Somebody please clue me in as to what they think the cause of the fire was. I HAVE to have not heard correctly.
We ..listen of this big explosion even here ..
Nicosia / Cyprus !
if only someone who will never be named didnt store all that explosive material in one place
You’re ACTUALLY saying that because the welders REPORTED location wasn’t where you THINK the fire started, based on smoke plume patterns, that this means the people there WELDING, wasn’t the cause of the fire?????
Brilliant.
And as someone who has had to put out massive fires in a structure, caused by welding taking place near rubber liners (kinda like a tire!), i can tell you with 100% certainty that YES, welding CAN cause fires to materials around it…
"the consequence of shoddy (low quality) welding work by Syrian welders". First, that ammonium nitrate wasn't supposed to be stored there for as long as it had been. Second, who approved the hot work, in a building with ammonium nitrate? Finally, there were fireworks stored in the same room. The Lebanese government has a lot of corruption and disfunction and they need to accept responsibility for this.
The fire could have spread inside the building and reached the tires at a certain time, before the heavy smoked was truly visible outside. And if something will burn hot and develop thick smoke, it's tires. You can't definitely blame the welders, but you can't definitely exclude them either, based solely on this information.
Blaming anyone else than the ones responsible for storing explosives like bags of sand, is a waste of time. I've seen bags of sand stored more neat btw.
Anfo only burns like anything else unless pressure is added.Fireworks ,dust ,explosives.The fireman first line could have set off a dust cloud causing an explosion ,setting off the burning Anfo that setting off the grain elevator?In grain dust elevator explosions, on the Fire dept we say the first explosion is the small one. The whole column of smoke had the color of the grain around its base.
This kind i like!
Anytime you want to do a similar animation report on wtc7 or the Pentagon ‘hole in the wall’ Let us know
Those have been reaearched thoroughly decades ago, debunking all the "Loose Change" "inside job" schizoid dipshits comprehensively.
I should know, I used to be one of those conspiratards.
But who thought it was a good idea to house 2,750 lbs of ammonium nitrate in a highly populated area?
this was a huge government screw up
Well, now that we know what didn't cause the fire, what DID cause it?
Shoddy work.😮
the people to blame are obviously rich and powerful.
Ammonium Nitrate is an OXIDISER not an explosive, it becomes explosive when they add a FUEL to it. Who added the fuel to the warehouse to make the explosive??????
Interesting! And the fire seems to have started where tyres were being stored, could they have been the fuel??
And the door was open there! Not a door the welders were working on.
a Lebanese judge ignored the warehouse management's request to remove the ammonium nitrate from the warehouse. The Govts looking for scapegoats...
Not to mention alot of videos of random people filming round have been removed of tube. I saw them, those noone would had the time to edit, when even the AI was not ready to do the job in real time. I dont think this explosion was an accident.
Lets store fireworks and tires in the same building as amonium nitrate, and then send in some contract welders!
WTF is the FBI doing in Beirut?
Helping the investigation
We offer our tech and knowledge in disasters like this
The FBI is the gold standard for forensic analysis. provided there is no political pressure, no one does a better job.
When there is political pressure, you get Richard Jewell where they invented a entirely new psych profile, or John Allen Muhammad who was initially profiled as a middle aged white guy in a plain white van.
honing their scapegoating skills, apparently. And learning to type in Arabic.
I'm not familiar with the politics of your area, but I can hear the suggestive tone in the narrative, "shoddy work of the SYRIAN welders" who cares what area the welders came from? Why does the narrative have to mention that they were Syrian? Like I said, though, I'm not familiar with your area's politics, but it sure does seem suspicious that the nationality of the welders is even mentioned at all.
Tianjin explosion august 12 2015 3d
Tianjin and Beirut explosion were strong enough to vaporise the warehouse and EMTs
This in 80KM away
i wonder how come it matters that the welders were syrian .
Ammonium nitrate warehouse
Errr.. read a book. Syria and Lebanon have been at odds for several decades.
They will pay!
well, if it wasn't the welders, who was?
Ignition source not relevant, storing fertilizer the problem.
Tjek the fights on radar record, from the given day, ?
Welding work does cause fires.
Lots of them.
Hence the fire watch.
That is going to be the first thing someone looks at.
Nothing crazy about that.
Welders cause so many fires.
So hold up. Welders were allowed to work doing hot work unsupervised , with a warehouse with fire works, tires and ammonium nitrate... 🤔🤔 the city of Beirut doesn't want to take any responsibility of letting this work happen unsupervised. They should have had a firetruck on stand by. This video shows how irresponsible the Lebanon government was.
who placed the ship there and who ignored it. the cause of the fire is not the cause of the explosion, the cause of the explosion is BUSINESS CORRUPTION on an international scale
Typical FBI report being inept due to their inert.
Learn to speak English before trying to troll in this language.
Even worst
poor peopple
I am really not sure what your point is, every one knows that Syrian welders are always to blame when something goes very wrong.
This is true. They broke my toe this past June while I was moving a refrigerator. Sneaky bastards. I never saw it coming....
The welders’ unsupervised work might have caused the fire, but the responsibility for the explosion is not theirs.
Management should responsible for the damage and loss of life.
@@jrregan wrong. Management or port authorities failed to conduct proper risk assessment, and failed to ensure the safety of passengers, workers, and residents.
Management and the port authorities have blood on their hands as they point at someone else to blame. Disgusting.
@@jrregan management would have sent in other welders if these welders didn’t want to do the dangerous assignment. Management failed to implement safe “hot work” procedures, putting the welders’ lives, and the lives of everyone at the port, in danger.
@@jrregan the ammonium nitrate cache had been improperly stored there for 6 years without proper labeling or hazard warning.
Damn, I wish I was at ground zero when it happened
You would never have noticed that you had died.
At around that time, I too would've hoped that.
You'd be vaporised
Same here. Out with a bang.
Blame it on Syrian welders? Nice try.
It's easy to say that it was these foreign workers who caused it all, than to admit that your own goverment and civil service is so corrupt that they let it all to get to a point. In reality it should be on the shoulders of those who let the AN stored haphazardly, as well as those who let it go on, even though you had first safety concerns raised five years prior.
Unfortunately those that have money can circumvent and bend the rules and can pay themselves to be free and use smoke and mirrors to blame it on to the lowest workers and/or imigrants that happened to be there.
Remember, whenever something bad happens, blame the Syrians.
The video is 9:11 minutes... 9/11
If it had been 4:20... then what? It's fucking irrelevant.
Yes. Strange isn't it. What are the odds?