What IS fire? (and what happened in Beirut?)
Chemistry For Your Life
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The Complexity of Fire
The explosion in Beirut could have been caused by improperly stored ammonium nitrate. The chemical reaction of fire is an oxidation reaction, just like we learned about with rust. If the heat and energy that's released in the breaking down can then ignite a fire if it's stored improperly. It kind of reminds you of photosynthesis where we know how it works, but we don't really know everything about how it works.
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