When 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at the Beirut port ignited a blast on 4 August 2020, killing more than 220, injuring around 7,000 others, and destroying buildings many miles away, people across the Lebanese capital were thrown into shock and disbelief watching powerlessly a catastrophe that could and should have been avoided. Lebanese officials were well aware of the dangers of storing the ammonium nitrate at the port, and warnings from customs authority were repeatedly ignored right up until the weeks before the blast. Yet, the huge stockpile had been stored unsafely in a dockside wareh…