March Webinar - Assessing the August 2020 Beirut Explosion

March Webinar - Assessing the August 2020 Beirut Explosion

Welcome to SFPE New England's March webinar. Due to COVID-19, we are sadly unable to meet in person as we have for so many years. Instead, we will be able to learn about new and exciting topics from the safety of our socially and physically distant computers. We are excited to present opportunities for New England's fire protection industry to get together and stay current on new topics.

On the March webinar, Professor Jeffrey Lewis from the Middlebury Institute will discuss the Beirut explosion.  On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion devastated the Lebanese city of Beirut, killing 204 people and injuring more than 7,000 others.  The cause of the explosion appears to have been 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate seized in 2013 and stored in poor conditions in the intervening years. Almost immediately, open source researchers were able to reconstruct the broad outlines of what happened, from the ship that brought the cargo to Beirut to the damage caused by the explosion.  This talk will focus on how open source researchers use public information to assess an event like the Beirut explosion.  The talk will also discuss the policy implications of the disaster, specifically the need to assist authorities with safely storing and disposing of contraband and other seized cargos.

 Learning Objectives

• Reconstructing the chain of events leading to an accident using open source information
• Modeling the size of the explosion using open source information
• Understanding safety issues arising from enforcement of sanctions and other regulations in the trade of dangerous goods..

AIA approved certificate of participation (1.0 LU) available upon request. Also, the SFPE NE annual seminar will be conducted virtually this year on April 14th. A program agenda for the seminar will be forthcoming. 

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