The Nashville blast had little effect against the AT&T building that was the apparent target. The historic storefronts and residences across the street suffered catastrophic damage. A lot of luck along with quick action by police prevented loss of life. 1/10
The explosion occurred adjacent to an underground utility vault. The blast breached the building wall with the explosive charge roughly perpendicular to the geometric center of the breach. The vault doors were damaged/displaced. 2/10
This NetBlocks analysis indicates that no real service outage occurred until several hours after the blast, which likely means that no fiber was severed, critical equipment was intact and that UPS was able to keep the center functional for several hours. 3/10
Reports of issues with power and a secondary fire were the likely cause of disruptions that occurred later. Again, the blast was largely ineffective against its intended target. 4/10
The AT&T building is a modern, reinforced concrete structure with what appears brick cladding over infilled CMU block walls. Composite wall construction performs well under dynamic loads. 5/10
Sustaining very little damage and towering over the historic storefronts and residences across the street, the AT&T building was nearly a perfect reflector, blast pressures rebounded off the massive structure and refocused effects at the older storefront buildings. 6/10
This cell phone video from street level shows what is likely the RV against next to the AT&T building (left). After the initial explosion, reflections off the massive structure focus blast and still burning explosives at the weaker storefronts to the right. 7/10
The blast shattered windows, spewed still burning explosives and failed the unreinforced load bearing brick, the structures then failed catastrophically. Anyone that had remained in the shops or residences across from the blast would have been seriously injured or killed. 8/10
The explosion also produced potentially lethal debris that was thrown indiscriminately over 1000-ft from the blast. 9/10
Already struggling businesses suffered catastrophic loss, residences were destroyed & given the indiscriminate nature of the blast, truly amazing that only the bomber lost his life. 10/10
MNPD posted surveillance video
Video immediately following the blast captures blown out windows, vehicles burning and finally the collapse of a facing historic brick wall.
Dense debris throw at 300-ft, well beyond the police cordon #nashville
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
This shot clearly depicts something that happened throughout the city - the initial blast overpressure shattering storefronts, a negative phase pulling the glass out of the structure onto the street and then several reflected shocks moving thru the dense urban areas.💔🇱🇧
HD video of the warehouse exploding in #Beruit. Fires involving energetic materials can transition to much more destructive reactions - 2 destinct events are notable,
(1) a smaller, but powerful detonation which causes a blinding flash followed by (2) a massive explosion-produced fireball that emerges out of the wharehouse