Noticed a bit of media coverage on a warehouse explosion in Beirut - seems to have leveled a good part of the city. I gather the place was storing 2700 tons (that's tons, not pounds) of ammonium nitrate.
It brings to mind a similar incident we experienced (thank goodness the only one, so far), some 25 years ago. I awoke in the morning to the news that one of our janitorial clients,
in Phoenix's Glendale suburb, had experienced a massive warehouse explosion overnight, big enough that a quarter mile radius evacuation had been ordered. And, since we were doing the nightly cleaning in the facility, we had keys to it, and were about the only folks likely to be there in the wee hours.
Next thing I knew, three serious looking fellows (3-piece suits, razor cut hair, communication devices in their ears) from Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms dropped by for a conversation. We opened our personnel files to them, without needing much encouragement, and spent the afternoon answering lots of questions. Fortunately, even back then we were aggressive applicant screening, and confirming ID, so we had most everything they needed - job histories, references, civil and criminal court records, driving records, etc. We're also quite aggressive about insuring key security; in a situation like this, it's handy to know where the building keys are.
Never heard back from the ATF fellows. I did hear via the grapevine that the information the Feds developed indicated that who-ever had done the deed had combined, in a very specific way, several chemicals stored in various parts of the warehouse. He would have needed some serious education in chemistry, as well as a detailed knowledge of what was stored exactly where in the facility, to have pulled it off. None of my folks came anywhere close to fitting the bill, not by a long shot.
I do hope I don't see those fellows again.