The whole "let's store fireworks next to several tons of explosives -- oh wait there's a fire" thing would sound incredibly contrived if it was in a story. It's almost like something out of a Road Runner cartoon, not real life.
The past year in Lebanon has been like that. I'm sure if someone wrote a script about this for a movie they'd be told to just "tone it down on the grimdark shit okay?" or something.
1 - Oct 2019: financial meltdown (still ongoing, local currency has lost 80% of value vs USD since then with no end in sight. Banks aren't giving out USD deposits either, you get to take them out in local currency and lose the difference in exchange rate)
2 - Protests, riots, etc... (since the meltdown and still ongoing)
3 - Pandemic, lockdown (Mar 2020, still ongoing with rising cases/day since measures were relaxed)
4 - Huge explosion takes out half the capital and what remains of the economy (The Beirut port runs about ~70% of all the sea trade volume of Lebanon).
The whole thing is literally stranger than fiction. Someone described the latest disaster like so: "The most shocking thing about the Beirut is explosion is how none of negligence and incompetence that led there is shocking".
According to this story, the welding was specifically as a result of the ammonium nitrate:
> In January 2020, a judge launched an official investigation after it was discovered that Hangar 12 was unguarded, had a hole in its southern wall and one of its doors dislodged, meaning the hazardous material was at risk of being stolen.
> In his final report following the investigation, Prosecutor General Oweidat “gave orders immediately” to ensure hangar doors and holes were repaired and security provided, a second high-ranking security official who also requested anonymity said.
> ...During the work, sparks from welding took hold and fire started to spread, the official said.
