The Year 2020 is just catapulting one horror after another. The global Pandemic wasn't enough to knock us down, we have had 5 Horrific Incidents in just three days of this new Month.
One of them being so far worse, that it is being compared with 1945 Nuclear Bombings.
On the 4th of August, a massive blast in the Port area of Beirut shook the entire city, Killing over 200 and injuring over 5000 in the radius of 15 miles. Shattering windows, rooftops, uprooting trees, toppling buildings like dominoes. This is a national Catastrophe.
With the news and videos going viral over the internet, people had one question, what really happened? How can such a massive blast take place in the middle of a city?
Let's find out today.
The countdown to catastrophe in Beirut started more than six years ago when a troubled, Russian-leased cargo ship made an unscheduled stop at the city’s port. The ship was trailed by debts, crewed by disgruntled sailors, and dogged by a small hole in its hull that meant water had to be constantly pumped out.
September 2013. A Cargo Ship named Rhosus took off from the port of Butami in Georgia. The Ship was destined For Mozambique, East Africa. The current route of the ship would take it from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and then Through Suez Canal, it would eventually enter the Arabian Sea.
The ship was leased by Igor Grechushkin, a Russian businessman living in Cyprus. Mr. Prokoshev, the captain, joined the ship in Turkey after a mutiny over unpaid wages by a previous crew. Mr. Grechushkin had been paid $1 million to transport the high-density ammonium nitrate to the port of Beira in Mozambique, the captain said.
As the ship neared its pass through the Suez canal, Greschushkin telephoned captain Prokoshev and told him he didn’t have enough money to pay for passage through the Suez Canal. So he sent the ship to Beirut to earn some cash by taking on an additional cargo of heavy machinery.
In November 2013, The ship made it to the Port of Beirut, however, upon their arrival, the captain got to know that the Heavy Machinery would not fit inside the ship as it was 30-40 years old.
Amid all this, the inspection of the Rhosus from Dock Officials found the ship Un-seaworthy and they denied permission to go back in waters. The ship had a small hole in its keel. The ship remained docked, Which kept the port docking charges increasing every day. Already suffering from the financial crunch, Greschunkin failed to pay the port, and eventually, the Port authority impounded the ship.
Out of Ten, Six crew members returned home, but Lebanese officials forced the captain and three Ukrainian crew members to remain on board until the debt issue was solved. Lebanese immigration restrictions prevented the crew from leaving the ship, and they struggled to obtain food and other supplies, according to their lawyers. "The Port officials provided us with food but they did not show any concerns with the Ship's dangerous Cargo. They only cared about the Docking fees we owed them." - Captain.
Increasingly desperate, Mr. Prokoshev sold some of the ship’s fuel and used the proceeds to hire a legal team. A Lebanese judge ordered the release of the crew on compassionate grounds in August 2014, and the crew was able to make their passage back to Ukraine.
Reportedly, the Law firm that Prokoshev Hired had warned the Lebanese authorities that the ship was in danger “of sinking or blowing up at any moment".
Before Leaving, Captain Prokoshev had given another warning to the Authorities about the Cargo.
The crew’s departure left the Lebanese authorities in charge of the ship’s deadly cargo, which was moved to a storage facility known as Hangar 12, where it remained until Tuesday. A Hughe Mistake.
So what really was on board Rhosus that made it so deadly?
It was High-Density Ammonium Nitrate. It is a highly explosive substance, very deadly, Abliet being used in construction and mining, it has also been used to make explosive devices deployed by terrorists such as the 1995 Oklahoma bomber, Timothy McVeigh, and the Islamic State.
Sales of ammonium nitrate are regulated in the United States, and many European countries require it to be mixed with other substances to make it less potent.
And the Ship Rhosus had TWO THOUSAND TONNES of it. That's right 2000 Ton of Ammonium Nitrate.
The deadly cargo onboard Rhosus was purchased by a Firm based in Mozambique, Fábrica de Explosivos de Moçambique, to make Explosives.
Taking the situation seriously, The general manager of Beirut’s port, Hassan Koraytem, wrote a letter to Lebanon’s courts to have the volatile material moved, but he got nothing in response.
Reportedly, the Custom Officers were told by the Government, that the Cargo will be sold off in an Auction, sadly, the auction never happened.
The customs officials proposed a number of solutions, including donating the ammonium nitrate to the Lebanese Army or selling it to the privately-owned Lebanese Explosives Company. Customs officials wrote to the Lebanese courts at least six times from 2014 to 2017, seeking guidance on how to dispose of the ammonium nitrate, according to public records posted to social media by a Lebanese lawmaker, Salim Aoun.
Fast Forward to the Present Day, a small fire set off near the dock, which could have been controlled. The fire somehow reached the Hanger where Cargo from Rhosus was stored. And boom. Highly volatile Ammonium Nitrate set of an Explosion which shattered everything in its way and was heard from over 30 miles away.
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