The Beirut Port Explosion: The Welders (English) 

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.

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!

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

5:08 fireworks, tyres, ammonium nitrate. It's like they put all the most flammable stuff in one place, it's like a cartoon.

Excellent presentation! The graphics you created overlayed seamlessly with the photos, enabling us to clearly understand your line of reasoning. Thank you

1:06 Whoever was live-streaming that video could not possibly have survived.

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.

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!!!

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.

Anyone interested in learning how to reason should watch this video and learn the difference between forensic analysis and emotionalism.

Literally done the work the Lebanese FBI and French reports didn’t do! Thank you 🙏🏿

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.

Well designed video comparing the animations to source material! Thank you all for that!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

More amazing work, thank you.

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 RU-vid 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.

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.

I feel like it was started intentionally. The welders was a scape goat.

Great video and breakdown!

How dare they blame the welders when what was in that wear house should have never been there

these are awesome illustrations thank you

Breaks my heart knowing that most of the video footage here was made by people who would never survive the blast..

Nicely done! ✅

Very impressive analysis and accompanying video/computer model orientation.

Amazing!

The Blame Game. Once started in modern social media times it is a difficult thing to stop.

Keep up the good work.

What a great job guys!

Fascinating. So many questions.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

Came here from the Pegasus Spyware video on Vice. I am subscribed and am looking forward to seeing more videos on important issues. People who have a heart and not one for the love of money, fame, and power, for compliments, for attention, those assholes aren’t anything to me. I have no attachments.

Great presentation and beautiful voice..

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.

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 easy to blame the lowest man on the totem pole ….

What an artist. These reconstruction are amazing

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

Don't forget about the fact of not properly documented nitrate, not stored properly, nor even documented with government.

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 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.

I think, after watching this video, it was the flash over where everything catches on fire due to the extreme head in the area.

never seen such good analysis video, holyshit

So what started the fire? Great video!

Cool

We ..listen of this big explosion even here .. Nicosia / Cyprus !

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??????

Anytime you want to do a similar animation report on wtc7 or the Pentagon ‘hole in the wall’ Let us know

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.

200+ dead? that's horrific, but MUCH lower than i thought

WOW

"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.

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.

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.

Well, now that we know what didn't cause the fire, what DID cause it?

This kind i like!

this was a huge government screw up

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.....

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.

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…

if only someone who will never be named didnt store all that explosive material in one place

Shoddy work.😮

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.

But who thought it was a good idea to house 2,750 lbs of ammonium nitrate in a highly populated area?

i wonder how come it matters that the welders were syrian .

the people to blame are obviously rich and powerful.

Lets store fireworks and tires in the same building as amonium nitrate, and then send in some contract welders!

This in 80KM away

Tianjin and Beirut explosion were strong enough to vaporise the warehouse and EMTs

Ignition source not relevant, storing fertilizer the problem.

a Lebanese judge ignored the warehouse management's request to remove the ammonium nitrate from the warehouse. The Govts looking for scapegoats...

WTF is the FBI doing in Beirut?

Tianjin explosion august 12 2015 3d

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.

well, if it wasn't the welders, who was?

Tjek the fights on radar record, from the given day, ?

They will pay!

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.

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.

I am really not sure what your point is, every one knows that Syrian welders are always to blame when something goes very wrong.

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

Even worst

poor peopple

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.

Blame it on Syrian welders? Nice try.

Damn, I wish I was at ground zero when it happened

Typical FBI report being inept due to their inert.

Remember, whenever something bad happens, blame the Syrians.

Shoddy work by Syrian workers, eh?! 🤔