and you just mention the sinjing explosion in 2015 —— tianjin.n that part of the world, so it is likely to have come in from somewhere else and have been stored for a while. what we saw in the video suggested two events. the first one evidently the trigger for the ammonium nitrate. so obviously it could have been stored more safely, that is self—evident. what do you think might have caused it to explode in sucha might have caused it to explode in such a massive way? it's difficult to say. it's been stored a long time. it's likely it became contaminated with fuel. it is not easily detonated, that large quantity, without fuel present. but if it had been there for a while, thatis had been there for a while, that is certainly a possibility. but there had to bea possibility. but there had to be a triggering event. ammonium nitrate does not go off by itself, and that's where i think you have the first explosion. as you cited, the explosion. as you cited, the explosion in the chinese port, there was an initial fire and explosion there that triggered the

in 2015 in tianjin, china, nitrocellulose caught fire in a warehouse, later triggering an explosion ofdied. in april 2013 in west texas, 15 people were killed, and 200 injured when a fertiliser company building caught fire. ammonium nitrate stored there later exploded — flattening 80 homes. the largest death toll was in texas city in 1947. 581 people were killed when 2,300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded on board a cargo ship. i spoke to vyto babrauskas, founder of fire science and technology inc, who has written an extensive review of ammonium nitrate explosions and how they happen. i asked him how this could have happened based on what he's seen and heard. it is a question of fire and lack of fire safety consciousness that the — every single disaster where ammonium nitrate blew up, either in storage or in transport, has one and only one cause, and that has been an uncontrolled fire. an from what i can see from the reports, that is precisely what happened in beirut. that there was an uncontrolled fire and lo and behold, when it impinged upon a storage of ammonium nitrate, there wa

the world not was this huge amounts 270700 tons but it was 400 tons in germany into some 1021 in tianjin and china was 800 tons also terrible devastating explosion in a in an industrial area and we've seen similar cases also in toulouse in texas so it's not just developing countries that experiences it happens time and again in different areas fabienne schmidt from d.w. science thank you for your insight. and we can get some more perspective on this story now we have. arabic with us in our studio here a month thank you so much for joining us 1st of all you are from lebanon you have family and friends in beirut is everyone ok we've been trying to figure that out since yesterday since the blast just making sure that everyone we know is safe and sound there are so there's a big number of missing was so i'm not sure how big that number is so obviously there are still people that we know that we don't know if they're still in good situation or not if they're safe if they're still alive even it's been a very tough past 24 hours i would say 20 hours and we're still trying to make sure that ever

and in tianjin, in china, in 2015, 173 people were killed after an explosion of 800 tons of ammoniumrtant that you actually know how to store it, you don't store in big quantities like this, you separate it, you ensure that if there is some kind of an explosion on one one part of the, erm, one part of the ammonium nitrate store that you've got, that it won't propagate to other parts of the site. so, there's lots of work that was done by scientists in the uk and across the world on how to store this. it appears, and i didn't go to this site, it appears that those lessons weren't learned in lebanon. the investigation continues to find out how this explosion could have happened. lina sinjab is in beirut. that is the question, everybody will be asking, a city still in shock. yes, indeed. as i am standing here just near the port area, you can still hear the sounds of the ambulances roving around, heading to the port area just behind me where the port area just behind me where the explosion happened. and you can see just the explosion happened. and you can seejust behind me the explosion h

and in tianjin, in china, in 2015, 173 people were killed after an explosion of 800 tons of ammoniumportant that you actually know how to store it, you don't store in big quantities like this, you separate it, you ensure that if there is some kind of an explosion on one one part of the, erm, one part of the ammonium nitrate store that you've got, that it won't propagate to other parts of the site. so, there's lots of work that was done by scientists in the uk and across the world on how to store this. it appears, and i didn't go to this site, it appears that those lessons weren't learned in lebanon. the investigation continues to find out how this explosion could have happened. bbc arabic correspondent, rami ruhayem is in one of the closest residential areas to the beirut port and sent this update. this is a sample of some of the destruction wrought on beirut by yesterday's blast. this neighbourhood here is very close to the site of the blast. many of the buildings here have balconies that overlook the port of beirut. so people would have been standing on their balconies, near their

in 2015 in tianjin, china —nitrocellulose caught fire in a warehouse, later triggering an explosion oftrate. 173 people died. in april 2013 in west texas, 15 people were killed, and 200 injured when a fertiliser company building caught fire. ammonium nitrate stored there later exploded — flattening 80 homes. the largest death toll was in texas in 1947. 581 people were killed when 2,300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded on board a cargo ship. vyto babrauskas — founder of fire science and technology inc — has written an extensive review of ammonium nitrate explosions. he told the bbc how they occur. it is a question of fire and lack of fire safety consciousness that the — every single disaster where ammonium nitrate blew up, either in storage or in transport, has one and only one cause, and that has been an uncontrolled fire. an from what i can see from the reports, that is precisely what happened in beirut. that there was an uncontrolled fire and lo and behold, when it impinged upon a storage of ammonium nitrate, there was a gigantic explosion. and that was entirely foreseeable, entir