On September 17, 2024, an unforeseen attack due to the Pagers Explosion targeting a military party in Lebanon left more than 2750 casualties. A total of 38 injured patients presented to the Lebanese American University Medical Center-Rizk Hospital (LAUMC-RH), a private university hospital. Most injuries were amputated fingers and eye injuries. Intensive training and regular drills are conducted at the hospital level to ensure readiness. This report highlights major challenges that were encountered during this explosion and provides possible strategies to overcome them.

On September 17, 2024, at 15:30 local time, thousands of pagers used by members of a specific party group detonated across Lebanon. As a result of the explosions, 2800 were wounded and 12 lost their lives. Almost two-thirds of the injuries were in the face, eyes, or hands. The Lebanese American University Medical Center received 38 injured and admitted 36 patients, 13 of them to the Intensive care unit. A total of 33 patients needed surgeries. All medical and nursing staff were deployed. The health care workers faced major challenges that night: the severity of the injuries and the unprecedented types of injuries with the same pattern, and the urgent need for ophthalmology and orthopedics within the hospital and across the country. Learning from the Pager Explosion, each hospital should perform assessments of their disaster response plan, develop trainings, and conduct regular exercises in preparation for future disasters.

We find sufficient conditions on explosion/non-explosion for continuous-state branching processes with competition in a Lévy random environment. In particular, we identify the necessary and sufficient conditions on explosion/non-explosion when the competition function is a power function and the Lévy measure of the associated branching mechanism is stable.

With the progress in science and technology, hazardous chemicals are becoming more essential in chemical products, industrial and agricultural production, and daily life. Hazardous chemicals have poisoning, corrosive, explosive, and combusting natures; once on fire, they can trigger a chain of catastrophic incidences, resulting in casualties, property loss, and environmental pollution and posing hazards to life and property. Using the “8–12” explosion of the Ruihai Logistics warehouse in Tianjin Port (Binhai New District, China), the present study analyzes the characteristics of trauma of the casualties in this accident and the emergency medical rescue strategies. The goals were to improve the ability of emergency rescue in such accidents and to save people’s lives and property to the maximum extent.

The largest non-nuclear blast in modern history took place on August 4, 2020, at 6:07 PM in Beirut, Lebanon, after an estimated 2750 tons of unsafely stored ammonium nitrate exploded. The physical and social impacts of this catastrophic event coinciding with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic were massive. This article describes the national and international emergency responses to this event and highlights the impact of the explosion on the health care sector in Lebanon. Challenges noted during this response with recommendations for improving response to future disasters are also described.

On December 1, 2017, the Fuji factory of Arakawa Chemical Industries exploded. Dust that formed as a byproduct from the crushing and packing process of the resin for ink exploded at the facility. The Fuji City Fire Department requested the dispatch of 2 physician-staffed helicopters (known as a doctor helicopter [DH] in Japan). The first party of emergency services established a headquarters and first-aid station. However, this area was feared to be at risk of a second explosion. Physicians performed re-triage for all 11 burned patients. Three severely injured patients were transported to emergency medical service centers either by ground ambulance or the DH without undergoing any decontamination. The physician who escorted the patient by ground ambulance complained of a headache. One of the severely injured patients was treated at a local hospital and then transported to an emergency medical service center after undergoing decontamination and intubation. Fortunately, all patients who were transported to medical facilities obtained a survival outcome. Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive incidents are rare but can be fatal for responders to these types of disaster. Therefore, all who work in these settings should be prepared and trained adequately to ensure that they have the knowledge and skill to both manage patients and protect themselves from harm. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:799–805)

The immediate patterns of injury from explosions are well documented, from both military and civil experience. However, few studies have focused on less immediately apparent health consequences and latent effects of explosions in survivors, emergency responders and the surrounding community. This review aimed to analyze the risks to health following an explosion in a civil setting.

A comprehensive review of the open literature was conducted, and data on 10 relevant military, civilian and industrial events were collected. Events were selected according to availability of published studies and involvement of large numbers of people injured. In addition, structured interviews with experts in the field were conducted, and existing national guidelines reviewed.

The review revealed significant and potentially long-term health implications affecting various body systems and psychological well-being following exposure to an explosion. An awareness of the short- and long-term health effects of explosions is essential in screening for blast injuries, and identifying latent pathologies that could otherwise be overlooked in stressful situations with other visually distracting injuries and, often, mass casualties. Such knowledge would guide responsible medical staff in implementing early appropriate interventions to reduce the burden of long-term sequelae. Effective planning and response strategies would ensure accessibility of appropriate health care resources and evidence-based information in the aftermath of an explosion.

Finlay SE, Earby M, Baker DJ, Murray VSG. Explosions and human health: the long-term effects of blast injury. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2012;27(4):1-7.

This paper concerns a generalization of the Markov branching process that preserves the random walk jump chain, but admits arbitrary positive jump rates. Necessary and sufficient conditions are found for regularity, including a generalization of the Harris-Dynkin integral condition when the jump rates are reciprocals of a Hausdorff moment sequence. Behaviour of the expected time to extinction is found, and some asymptotic properties of the explosion time are given for the case where extinction cannot occur. Existence of a unique invariant measure is shown, and conditions found for unique solution of the Forward equations. The ergodicity of a resurrected version is investigated.

On 21 September 2001, an earthquake triggered an explosion at an artificial fertilizer factory in Toulouse, France. As a result, 30 people were killed and 3,500 people were injured. Extensive damage hindered rescue services in their efforts to reach the factory; however, within several hours an assembly point with 60 doctors was established several kilometers from the explosion site. One hospital close to the scene needed to be temporarily evacuated.The disaster challenged rescue teams on many levels; for example, there was a question of toxicity, as well as communication difficulties due to the damaged telephone lines and clogged mobile networks.

This Panel Session consisted of three country reports (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; Sri Lanka; and Timor-Leste) and the common issues identified during the Panel discussions relative to industrial accidents and conflicts in the Southeast Asia Region. Important issues identified included the needs for: (1) use of medical technology; (2) stockpiling of essential supplies; (3) human resource development; (4) surveillance systems for disease detection; (5) coordination; and (6) emergency funding.

A fire and subsequent explosions occurred in a fireworks warehouse on 13 May 2000. A total of 947 persons were injured and 21 persons died, including four firefighters and one reporter. Communication networks became overloaded and impaired notification chains. The hospital disaster plan was followed, but was proved inadequate. Public information was a high priority. A counselling center was established early and was planned to continue operation for five years. The command function did not perform to expectations. Hospital triage was impaired as many responsible left the triage area. Short-term psychosocial support evolved to long-term programs. Liability issues were examined.