A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Lessons Learned
The city of Beirut sits on a peninsula along Lebanon's Mediterranean coast. The Port of Beirut, opened in 1887, is located directly north of downtown Beirut and mostly separated from the commercial and residential quarters by the Charles Helou highway. The port contains berths for freight vessels, grain silos, and storage hangars. Over the years, thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate ended up being stored in Hangar 12, located directly east of the grain silos. For yet unknown reasons, the same hangar stored fuel, acid, fuse spools, and 15 tons of fireworks. On Aug. 4, 2020, at about 6:07 p.m., a sequence of events started a chain reaction by which a fire in the hangar caused the fireworks and subsequently the ammonium nitrate to detonate, resulting in nearly 200 deaths, more than 6,000 injuries, about 300,000 people losing their homes, and $10 billion to $15 billion in damage throughout the city. Several damaged buildings were assessed in the weeks following the explosion, and in the following article, we compare their actual damage with that predicted by industry standards. Our aim is to further engineers' understanding of the accuracy of current explosive safety models and analyses. Underlying this effort is one question: What can we learn from the Beirut explosion to better prepare other urban environments for accidents such as this?
Lessons Learned
The city of Beirut sits on a peninsula along Lebanon's Mediterranean coast. The Port of Beirut, opened in 1887, is located directly north of downtown Beirut and mostly separated from the commercial and residential quarters by the Charles Helou highway. The port contains berths for freight vessels, grain silos, and storage hangars. Over the years, thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate ended up being stored in Hangar 12, located directly east of the grain silos. For yet unknown reasons, the same hangar stored fuel, acid, fuse spools, and 15 tons of fireworks. On Aug. 4, 2020, at about 6:07 p.m., a sequence of events started a chain reaction by which a fire in the hangar caused the fireworks and subsequently the ammonium nitrate to detonate, resulting in nearly 200 deaths, more than 6,000 injuries, about 300,000 people losing their homes, and $10 billion to $15 billion in damage throughout the city. Several damaged buildings were assessed in the weeks following the explosion, and in the following article, we compare their actual damage with that predicted by industry standards. Our aim is to further engineers' understanding of the accuracy of current explosive safety models and analyses. Underlying this effort is one question: What can we learn from the Beirut explosion to better prepare other urban environments for accidents such as this?
Lessons Learned
Mueller, Kevin (author) / Hantouche, Elie (author) / Misselbrook, Nicolas (author)
Civil Engineering Magazine Archive ; 90 ; 48-55
2021-01-01
82020-01-01 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
Unknown
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