Los Angeles Times reporter Nabih Bulos was less than 500 yards from the center of the massive explosion in Beirut. He lived to tell the tale For many shell-shocked residents, the silos that were once a symbol of national promise have instead become a monument to the decades of official negligence and systemic corruption that allowed such an enormous quantity of ammonium nitrate — a chemical used in agricultural fertilizer but also in bombs — to be unsafely stored for seven years at Beirut’s port. “The silos, as a visible structure, were a reminder of how organized and pro-active Lebanon was in its early days,” said Abdul Halim Jabr, an urban designer and member of the Beirut Heritage Initiative, a group of architects and preservation experts.