"nightline" is next. you may now go back to fighting with your family. goodnight. this is "nightline." >> tonight, shattered city. the blast that rocked beirut. a massive cloud in the sky, pan eck in t panic in the streets. buildings turned to rubble. people out in the streets screaming and shouting. >> a mother takes us inside those terrifying moments as she races to save her daughter. >> i'm trying to position myself in a way that prevents my daughter from seeing complete carnage. >> now the terrible toll and what we know about what caused this disaster. plus, survivor story, how one man's split-second decision may have saved him. >> i knew right away that was either the end or we have to

just run. >> and we go inside the anatomy of a blast. >> "nightline" starts right now. with byron pitts. >> good evening. thank you for joining us. it is one of the oldest cities on earth, once a shining capital on the sea, the paris of the middle east, more recently caught up in conflict with forces near and far. tonight beirut devastated. and the wound apparently self-inflicted. here's abc's ian >> reporter: in the midst of chaos and horror, a mother comforts her 4-year-old daughter with a lullaby. as their ambulance, packed with the wounded, navigates the streets of beirut's lebanon after a massive explosion tore through the city. >> i am thinking i should be stabilizing these patients.

i should be working on them, but who's going to hold my daughter if i'm doing that. i'm trying to position myself in a way that prevents my dotter from seeing complete carnage. >> reporter: the doctor, trained to work in combat zones, finding herself in the middle of one at home. now switching between pediatrician and parent. >> i'm telling my daughter, look at me, honey, just look at mama. i want you to look straight in my eyes, and we're going to think about our favorite place, the beach. if you feel any liquid on your legs, we're going to think about that like the beach. obviously, i'm talking about blood coming out of her legs. >> reporter: outside the ambulance window, parts of beirut in ruins. the blast killing 135, including one american, 5,000 injured and many still missing. the shockwaves leveling buildings, blowing out windows, felt over 100 miles away in cyprus.

authorities believe the cause, over 2,500 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate stored for six years at a warehouse at beirut port. this was the port before, and now today, a crater. moments before the catastrophe, a city churned with the rhythms of life. a priest blessing the altar, a bride posing for photos. even a jet skier in the harbor. none could even imagine what would happen next. >> i have been through a bomb blast, but the intensity of it felt like nothing else i've ever experienced. >> reporter: the first signs of trouble came around 6:00 p.m. tuesday. white clouds billowing in the air. smoke coming from a fire at this warehouse, followed by bursts of flames like firewocrackers. then a massive blast, a mushroom

cloud blooming overhead. a pink chemical cloud taking its place. summer hadid lives a mile from the blast site. >> i was in my apartment when i first felt the blast. i felt an immediate shake, and gloom, almost as if there was an earthquake and a bomb explode all at once. >> reporter: glass shattering all around her, her apartment is in ruins, so she fled the building, worried it might collapse. >> i was terrified. seeing the blood on the staircase, seeing how injured my neighbors were was quite distressing, but we needed to get out of there. >> reporter: navi bullos was so disoriented he couldn't remember taking these photos. he hopped on his motorcycle to get a better view. >> i headed toward the port itself on the motorcycle, and i

guess 15 minutes later is when the biggest one hit. the shock wave of the second larger blast must have hit then and threw me off my motorcycle. >> reporter: navi left shaken and injured, he believes his helmet saved his life. >> the visor bore the the i felt these hands wrapping around my forehead. >> reporter: chaos on the streets and also in overwhelmed hospitals. >> an immense display of courage and solidarity, but it was also exactly like a war zone. there were people lying on the ground. it's literally a sea and maze of limbs that we're trying to get through, of people, and then looking over and realizing, even though you're worried about your kid, that thank god she's not the one next door that they're doing cpr on. >> we see everything from bodies completely disintegrated,

shattered, to individuals, victims completely crushed by buildings, by vehicles. victims burned by the heat of the explosion. >> reporter: the health care system already battered by a six-month battle with covid-19. the blast coming on the first day after the city emerged from lockdown over the virus. >> imagine in the middle of this you have a sudden event, like this explosion, that brings in two or three hours 4,000 victims to the nearest hospitals. they're already starving for health care supplies. >> the health care system is over extended, underfunded, and so are the people. >> reporter: the pandemic and economic collapse hitting as the country was already facing a staggering financial crisis. >> so, in the past few months, i've seen basic groceries go to for what used to be $100 a week to $450 a week for two, for a

family of three. so hunger is real. the threat of hunger is real. that just does not bode well for this country. >> reporter: and this is what's left of the grain supply for the entire country. >> this has really exacerbated just multiplied the suffering in lebanon. you hear people say here that we're cursed. you know, as lebanese people, we're cursed. >> reporter: today the city recovers the dead and searches for the missing, looking for any survivors in the rubble. reports of up to 300,000 homeless from the blast. the death toll expected to rise. the explosions now under investigation. the massive amount of ammonium nitrate had been confiscated from a freighter. according to reports attributed to lebanese officials, there had been multiple warnings about the way this highly-dangerous material was being stored at the

port. >> the main feeling here is sheer rage. the fact is, this explosion was a function of negligence, or at least people see it as such. the materials that were stored at the port have been there since 2015. this despite repeated requests to move them elsewhere, and yet those requests were completely ignored. >> reporter: lebanon's prime minister vowing justice, saying those responsible will pay the price. lebanon's president announcing that the port officials have been put under house arrest unl an investigation determines who's to blame. some officials are pointinomethe sinister, seemingly without support. >> i've heard it both ways, too. i've heard accident, i've heard explosives. obviously it must have been some sort of explosives. whether it was a bomb intended to be set off, it ended up being

a bomb. >> reporter: that despite his defense secretary saying otherwise. >> it's an accident, we have nothing more on that. we're willing to supply whatever we can to assist the people of lebanon. >> reporter: aid now being offered from around the world, even from israel, lebanon's sworn enemy, offering humanitarian and medical assistance. >> reporter: iman and seema were discharged from the hospital this morning, a mother now finding new words to comfort her dater. >> so many people say always what mr. rogers said, look for the helpers. that's certainly what you would tell a child. as you grow to be an adult, your job is going to change, from looking for helpers to becoming those people, so when there's a kid out there looking for a helper, he or she can look to you. >> reporter: for "nightline," ian panel in london. >> our thanks to ian.

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the image is hard to believe. a mushroom cloud ballooning over beirut. but the biggest impact was from the devastating shock wave that followed only seconds later. one man and his mother watching from their hotel balcony had only those few moments to make a choice, a choice that likely meant the difference between life or death. an hour before the massive explosion that rocked beirut, killing at least 135 people and injuring 5,000 more, kareem, a u.s.-based film maker was in town to for work and to see his family, in a hotel. >> my mom came, and we were sitting on the balcony and having coffee, so we actually were talking about me potentially moving my family outside of lebanon for good. >> reporter: qassim says suddenly they could hear that something was going on nearby.

>> it could be any fire. i think it was at least half a houfr hour. one fire truck came, then another and then another. i think there were three fire trucks that arrived. >> reporter: and then the first explosion. >> i think there was a subtle explosion at first that slightly, you know, it caught our attention for sure. my mom and i looked at each other, and then we felt, you know, while we were looking at each other, we felt an earthquake. >> reporter: just seconds after feeling the building shake, qassim says he saw a mushroom cloud. >> i knew right away that was either the end or we have to just run and get, you know, as safe as possible anywhere, but we had to run straight, you know, to the corridor. we got halfway, and then we flew. >> reporter: the explosion flinging his hotel door from its hinges, shattering almost every window in the building. >> when the, you know, the shock wave pressure hit us, it just

feels like this force field going through you. like your soul is coming out the other side. so, when it hit us, you know, we went unconscious for maybe two, three seconds, and then i woke up to me and my mom outside in the corridor, with the door itself. >> reporter: qassim and his mother were fortunate enough to escape with minor injuries. >> yeah, i hurt my knee. mom broke her toe. i've been feeling chest pains ever since, so now it's getting a little bit better, but i wouldn't say that i'm physically damaged. we just got lucky. >> reporter: adding to his luck, the open balcony door which saved them precious secoom,qass to avoid the full force of the lives, and that initiative to actually get up and run, we would have blown into the room and really hurt ourselves much more than we ultimately did. >> reporter: it was only through a drive to their family home

through the rubble and despair that qassim recognized the damage, one that he realizes will haunt the city and its residents for days to come. >> i feel completely dead. i'm unable to think. i'm unable to act. i'm only able to step back and try to recover and then make some real decisions. you need time to recover. >> to get a better sense of the explosion and the science behind it, earlier today i spoke to dr. van romero, professor and vice president of research at the new mexico institute of mining and technology. thanks for joining us. for starters, looking at those terrible videos of the explosion in beirut, what does your experience tell but that blast? >> what iary poos appears to have happened is a fire that led

to an explosion and led to the huge explosion because of the amoan jud ammonium nitrate in the area. once that starts, you can't stop it. >> "nightline" spoke to kareem qassam, who experienced the blast kareem said when he saw the mushroom cloud, he ran inside through his open balcony door before he felt the second blast. how important was it that his balcony door was open and that he ran when he saw the mushroom cloud? >> it appears to me that that saved his life. the shock wave comes in and hits the window. some of it bounces out. so actually by keeping the door open, more of the shock wave got in, but it gave him a path to eskam. >> what does the color of the plume indicate? why was it a pink-red color? >> that very interesting. it's obvious that what you see that red hue or pinkish hue is ammonium nig

ammonium nitrate that did not detonate. the ammonium nitrate that stayed on the top of the pile, it gets thrown up and out before it can react chemically. that's what you she in thee in cloud with the red >> a report from the chemical safety board found there are 47 states that store ammonium nitrate. is that an issue in the u.s. that needs to be addressed? >> there was an event in west texas i think it was around 2013, where they had a manufacturing plant that detonated. and every time we have an event like that, we look at our regulations and how we store this type of material. tragedies like this can always be avoided, if things are stored

properly. unfortunately, these rules aren't always followed. >> dr. van romero, thank you so much, sir, for your time. >> ngs that you. coming up, a song for the silence in beirut. they've really stood the test of time. much like these majestic rocky mountains. which must be named after the... that would be rocky the flying squirrel, mr. gecko sir. obviously! ahh come on bullwinkle, they're named after... our first president george rockington! that doesn't even make any sense... mr... uhh... winkle. geico. over 75 years of savings and service. mr... uhh... winkle. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c.

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and finally tonight, a reminder that beauty exists even in the most track egic times. amidst the wreckage in beirut, a woman on her piano crying out. . her rendition of "auld lang syne." beauty from

♪ ♪ >> a song to soothe the wounded. that's "nightline" for this evening. can you catch our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here same time tomorrow. thanks for the company, america, goodnight. >> dicky: from hollywood, it's "jimmy kimmel live," with guest host, sebastian maniscalco. tonight, alex rodriguez, and our health care hero of the week. and now, here's sebastian maniscalco. >> sebastian: hello and welcome to "jimmy kimmel live!" i'm sebastian maniscalco back again for a second night.

they almost didn't let me do the show tonight. i showed up and someone took my temperature and it was 101°. i said listen, i'm italian. i run hot. but i'm a hypochondriac so i constantly think i got coronavirus. i'm walking around every day smelling my toilet and candles making sure i don't have this thing. they just told me that the ratings were fantastic last night, which is nice. i'm not complaining about that. but when i told my parents that, they said "why? "did the other two guys pass away?" my mom told me i was too stiff and that my suit didn't fit. and my dad wanted to know why i didn't mention my cousin's construction company. i'm just so glad to be working again. my days normally start out with the zoom preschool circle time song, "the joey's are here today." the joey's are here today. hip hip hip hooray.