Playing with Fire: Welding accident or something else?

The aftermath of the 2020 megablast in Beirut. Getty Images

I recently argued why we need government-mandated rules and regulations. As I reviewed, I thought about the August 2020 explosion in Beirut, a megablast that killed over 200, wounded over 6,000, and displaced more than 300,000 people from homes and businesses—an explosion allegedly ignited by welders.

At the time, it served as another extreme example of why humans cannot be trusted to “do the right thing” without adequately thought out and enforced regulations. It’s also intriguing to update the story with three years of distance, what investigations have concluded, and how the political blame game has shaken out. Were the welders responsible at all, or were they an easy scapegoat?

Who is responsible for your safety? Catchphrase posters like “Safety First,” “Safety is Job One,” and “Safety is No Accident” look good lining factory walls, but I don’t know many workers who get stoked when health and safety reps walk the floor.

In my 2020 blog piece, I reminded readers that a skilled tradesperson understands and negotiates the danger inherent in what they do. We deal with so much: unforgiving machinery, heights, objects that are large and heavy and awkward, gasses and fluids under pressure, fire, and explosive gasses. We’ve been trained on the pitfalls and consequences of ignoring protocol, often even more comprehensively than company safety representatives.

“That being said, it’s good that we have checks in place, someone whose job it is to oversee our work practices and conditions,” I wrote back then. “Who among us has not played Russian roulette because of the pressure from bosses, or co-workers, or even from ourselves to get a job done as quickly as possible? I know I have, and I’ve witnessed a few near misses in my career.”

I thought about safety practices and regulations while reading about the explosion in Beirut. While it seemed that some did not believe the Lebanese government, from most reports, it looked like a welder started the disaster with a spark.

“Multiple sources have reported that the disastrous explosion at Port of Beirut was sparked by hot work at a warehouse where officials had stored 2,750 tonnes of confiscated ammonium nitrate and a cache of fireworks,” according to a New York Times article. “In a new report, senior officials provided Reuters with additional details: Early this year, they had learned that one of the warehouse's doors was broken, raising the risk that a malicious actor could steal this dangerous explosives-grade cargo. The port's welding contractors set off the cache while trying to repair the door to protect the cache.

“In the same hangar were jugs of oil, kerosene, and hydrochloric acid; five miles of fuse on wooden spools; and 15 tons of fireworks—every ingredient needed to construct a bomb that could devastate a city.”

If you saw this situation in a movie, you’d think, “What is this, ‘Naked Gun?’ Where is Leslie Nielson? There is no way on earth they’d have those ingredients together in real life.”

I wrote about how the Beirut explosion was 1,100 times bigger than the Oklahoma City bombing, and the blame for the blast primarily falls on corrupt politicians, contractors, and organized criminal groups who exploited the harbor for financial gain. The ammonium nitrate, confiscated six years earlier, was left unattended due to bureaucratic delays. Even basic maintenance tasks took an inordinate amount of time, leaving the hazardous material exposed. Welders were hired to repair a door, but their training and precautions were questionable. The exact circumstances of the welders' involvement and whether they left their post prematurely remained unclear. However, three Syrian workers were arrested, raising the total number of politicians and contractors detained to 22.

I highlighted the Beirut explosion to emphasize the importance of personal responsibility in ensuring safety, risk assessment, and prevention. Yes, workers’ rights are more advanced in the U.S., but that doesn’t make this case any less interesting. And as I wrote in 2020, “It doesn’t make combustible stuff any less combustible.”

After writing the article, I remained intrigued by the Beirut explosion analysis, the government cover-ups, and the unfolding legal proceedings surrounding this case.

The investigation quickly escalated, looking at the blue-collar guys just doing what they were told to do as well as the people in power who made a litany of corrupt decisions. And those folks weren’t happy. Since 2020, official investigations have started, stopped, restarted, stopped, restarted, and stopped again.

“Politicians that [Judge Tarek] Bitar had sought to question, including Hezbollah allies, made dozens of legal challenges disputing his right to interrogate them and saying he had overstepped his powers,” according to a Reuters article. “The investigation was paralyzed in early 2022 by the retirement of judges from a court that must rule on several complaints against Bitar before he can continue. The court has been awaiting the appointment of new judges to resume its work—a step authorities have not taken. Bitar resumed his work on the basis of a legal interpretation challenging the reasons for its suspension, the judicial sources said.”

This report was from January 2023. Investigations stopped again weeks later. Bitar is now living under military protection 24/7. Amongst the startling discoveries before being shut down is that the 2,700 lbs. of ammonium nitrate that went boom was less than half of what had been on a ship six years previously.

Any government investigation going forward seems unlikely to bring out the truth. However, the groundbreaking development of “forensic architecture” from one agency might.

“Forensic Architecture (FA) is a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London, investigating human rights violations, including violence committed by states, police forces, militaries, and corporations,” according to the Forensic Architecture website. “FA works in partnership with institutions across civil society, from grassroots activists to legal teams, to international NGOs and media organizations, to carry out investigations with and on behalf of communities and individuals affected by conflict, police brutality, border regimes, and environmental violence. ‘Forensic architecture’ refers to the production and presentation of architectural evidence—relating to buildings, urban environments—within legal and political processes.”

I came across a 10-minute video presentation by FA called “Not the Welders.” In the video, they make a strong case that both the FBI and the Lebanese Internal Security Forces were way off when concluding that welding sparks caused the blaze that ignited the explosion. The video and photographic evidence they gathered from the time right before the blast indicate the fire started in an area of tire storage behind a door that wasn’t close to where they were working.

They reference an interview with a Syrian worker who was released from prison when he convinced authorities that he wasn’t even a welder. While officials stated that the weld/repair crew was working that day without supervision, he said that not only were police officers there, but they were blocking the workers' access to any other areas in the warehouse, including making them crawl over ammonium nitrate bags, as opposed to walking around them, to access the first of the two doors in need of repair. The welders finished almost two hours before the first fire was spotted. FA’s modeling is incredible, and the way they blend actual videos and pictures with their architectural renderings is magic.

The vibe I get now is that my guys the welders were set up by an entity that purposefully ignited the fire. They were Syrian immigrants held in very low esteem, and certain corrupt political parties seized the opportunity to have them do some welding. The small work crew was escorted out before the disaster (so they could be found, arrested, and scapegoated). Then, bad actors ignited a fire in the warehouse that was built like a bomb, almost comically so if it wasn’t so tragic. Destruction and chaos followed. Who benefited?

What do you think? I say #freethewelders.