On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port Of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded, causing at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and US$15 billion in property damage, as well as leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. A cargo of 2,750 tonnes of the substance (equivalent to around 1.1 kilo-tonnes of TNT) had been stored in a warehouse without proper safety measures for the previous six years after having been confiscated by Lebanese authorities from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus. The explosion was preceded by a fire in the same warehouse.
The 2020 Port Of Beirut explosion was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history.
The fire at the port prior to the explosion was big enough to attract attention from civilians, because of this there is a huge amount of video available online of the event. There's a lot of videos of people recording the fire, obviously unaware that there's about to be an explosion. The videos usually cut off shortly afterwards.
Enter @beirutexplosionangles30 on YouTube.
This is a channel collecting different videos of the explosion. There are over 900 different angles collected on it, uploaded over the course of two years.
Personally I find it incredibly frightening to watch, but in a way where it's hard to stop looking. What's more interesting than the channel however is the fact that this video archive of this tragedy in Lebanon is ran by a 13 year old boy from the United States.
I think it was a little obvious already, after reading all the strange community posts and interactions with commenters, or by the channel's about page which contains some questionable grammar and also blatantly wrong statistics about the impact of the explosion. However, as of yesterday it's been confirmed with the channel's newest video, where the channel's owner and his brother appear on camera to thank all of their subscribers, as well as to shamelessly plug their OTHER channel, where the two make vlogs, reviews of Mountain Dew flavours, and gaming videos.
Considering that comments are turned off, I'd imagine many people found this a little bit disrespectful. Especially because in the video, the two repeatedly thank their subscribers for helping the channel "blow up", without ever realizing the unfortunate parallels to the channel's heavy subject matter.
I think the content on the channel is a haunting collection of videos from one of the biggest tragedies in recent world history, but everything surrounding it is a testament to the strange places kids can end up online on the modern internet. I feel like alot of the commenters are also children, and it's something i've noticed happening online now, where young kids make their own networks instead of trying to appear adult on an adult internet.
The channel: https://www.youtube.com/@beirutexplosionangles30
Their other channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2eSl1dVOhM36uLXXqgXRBg/videos
The thank you video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSkUFrbpHko
The 2020 Port Of Beirut explosion was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history.
The fire at the port prior to the explosion was big enough to attract attention from civilians, because of this there is a huge amount of video available online of the event. There's a lot of videos of people recording the fire, obviously unaware that there's about to be an explosion. The videos usually cut off shortly afterwards.
Enter @beirutexplosionangles30 on YouTube.
This is a channel collecting different videos of the explosion. There are over 900 different angles collected on it, uploaded over the course of two years.
Personally I find it incredibly frightening to watch, but in a way where it's hard to stop looking. What's more interesting than the channel however is the fact that this video archive of this tragedy in Lebanon is ran by a 13 year old boy from the United States.
I think it was a little obvious already, after reading all the strange community posts and interactions with commenters, or by the channel's about page which contains some questionable grammar and also blatantly wrong statistics about the impact of the explosion. However, as of yesterday it's been confirmed with the channel's newest video, where the channel's owner and his brother appear on camera to thank all of their subscribers, as well as to shamelessly plug their OTHER channel, where the two make vlogs, reviews of Mountain Dew flavours, and gaming videos.
Considering that comments are turned off, I'd imagine many people found this a little bit disrespectful. Especially because in the video, the two repeatedly thank their subscribers for helping the channel "blow up", without ever realizing the unfortunate parallels to the channel's heavy subject matter.
I think the content on the channel is a haunting collection of videos from one of the biggest tragedies in recent world history, but everything surrounding it is a testament to the strange places kids can end up online on the modern internet. I feel like alot of the commenters are also children, and it's something i've noticed happening online now, where young kids make their own networks instead of trying to appear adult on an adult internet.
The channel: https://www.youtube.com/@beirutexplosionangles30
Their other channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2eSl1dVOhM36uLXXqgXRBg/videos
The thank you video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSkUFrbpHko
