page_title: 2020 Beirut explosion
section_title: Damage
hierarchical_section_title: 2020 Beirut explosion / Damage
caption_attribution_description: English: Aftermath of the 2020 Beirut explosions Deutsch: Zerstörungen in der City von Beirut nach der Explosionskatastophe 2020
context_page_description: On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of the city of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, exploded, causing at least 190 deaths, 6,500 injuries, US$10–15 billion in property damage, and leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. Around 2,750 tonnes of the substance had been stored in a warehouse without proper safety measures for the previous six years, after having been confiscated by the Lebanese authorities from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus. It is not yet known what caused the ammonium nitrate to detonate; suggested reasons include a fire in an alleged fireworks warehouse, an attack, or a fire in an ammunition warehouse; an investigation is ongoing.
  The explosion was felt in Turkey, Syria, Israel, and parts of Europe, and was heard in Cyprus, more than 250 km away. It was detected by the United States Geological Survey as a seismic event of magnitude 3.3, and is considered one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history.
  The Lebanese government declared a two-week state of emergency in response to the disaster.
context_section_description: The explosion overturned cars and stripped steel-framed buildings of their cladding. Within the port area, the explosion destroyed a section of shoreline and left a crater roughly 124 m (407 ft) in diameter and 43 m (141 ft) in depth. Witnesses said homes as far as 10 kilometers (6 miles) away were damaged by the blast, and up to 300,000 people were left homeless by the explosion. The grain silos were destroyed, exacerbating food shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a severe financial crisis. About 15,000 tonnes (14,800 long tons; 16,500 short tons) of grain were destroyed, leaving the country with less than a month's worth of grain in reserve.
  The damage from the blast affected over half of Beirut, with the likely cost above $15 billion and insured losses at around $3 billion. Approximately ninety percent of the hotels in the city were damaged and three hospitals completely destroyed, while two more suffered damage. Dozens of injured people brought to nearby hospitals could not be admitted because of the damage to the hospitals. Windows and other installations of glass across the city were shattered.
  Saint George Hospital, one of the city's largest medical facilities, was less than 1 kilometer (⁵⁄₈ mile) from the explosion, and was so badly damaged that staff were forced to treat patients in the street. Four nurses died from the initial blast, fifteen patients died after their ventilators stopped working, and several child cancer patients were injured by flying glass. Within hours, after discharging all its patients, and sending some to other facilities, Saint George Hospital was forced to close. The hospital's director of intensive care, Dr. Joseph Haddad, was quoted as saying: "There is no St. George Hospital any more. It's fallen, it's on the floor ... It's all destroyed. All of it."
  The Sursock Museum was severely damaged, as were many of its artworks, and some ceramics were completely destroyed. Sursock Palace, a 160-year-old Beirut landmark, was restored over a twenty-year period following the civil war of 1975–1990. Listed as a cultural heritage site, the palace and its many artworks sustained heavy damage. The Armenian Catholicosate in Antelias sustained great damage. All the stained glass windows of the National Evangelical Church were blown out. The FIBA Asia headquarters was also heavily damaged. Embassies in and around Beirut reported varying degrees of damage to their buildings; the embassies of Argentina, Australia, Finland, Cyprus, and the Netherlands, which were close to the blast, sustained heavy damage, while minor damage was reported from the South Korean, Hungarian, Kazakh, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Turkish embassies.
caption: S. Dagher Building, located opposite the port's free zone entrance, suffered extensive damage
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