[bert]

Dumb?

Yes but..... I suspect that the confiscation of international cargo involves in extremely complex legal matters involving perhaps several nations, corporations, ship lines and insurance companies. The fertilizer had to be stored while the legal wrangling was in process.

The legal wrangling now shifts to who was the owner and was it responsible for the explosion by being the actual owner.

[BenLurkin]

Understood. I guess what I’m saying is that since they were holding the ammonium nitrate pending resolution of the court actions, the port authorities should have prevented flammable items being stored adjacent.

I imagine the Beirut fire department knew the 2,750 tons were there and pointed this out to the mayor or whoever but were ignored?

It looks like they weren’t there when explosion occurred.

[RayChuang88]

But 2,750 tons? That's a lot of ammonium nitrate being stored in a very questionable manner in legal limbo. Makes you wonder did a cache of rockets from Iran intended for Hezbollah got set off accidentally, started a major fire situation and ended up setting off the ammonium nitrate with the force of a artillery shell nuclear warhead (yield around 0.5 KT).