
This post deals with descriptions of injury and death and might be triggering for some readers.
On August 4, 2020, thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored in the city of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, exploded.
Two hundred people died, 6,500 people were injured, 300,000 people were left homeless and $AU34 billion worth of damage was caused to a city and a country already in deep unrest.
Two-year-old Isaac Oehlers was the only Australian victim.
His parents, Sarah Copland and Craig Oehlers, moved to Beirut last year for Sarah's work with the United Nations, but with another baby on the way and more coronavirus lockdowns looming, the family had been trying for months to fly back to Perth.
WATCH: Isaac's parents Sarah Copland and Craig Oehlers shared their story on Four Corners. Post continues below.
"They shut the airports. We couldn’t leave to get home. So, we had made several attempts to get back this year, and we were so close," Sarah told Four Corners in the couple's first interview since the tragedy.
They'd managed to get a flight booked for late August.
"Just three weeks difference and our whole lives would be... just the way they were supposed to be. Isaac would be here running around with his grandparents rather than us visiting him in a cemetery," Sarah said.
It was just before dinner time when the enormous explosion ricocheted through the family's apartment.
Isaac was in his highchair listening to his favourite song 'Baby Shark', with his mum by his side. His dad was in the bathroom.
"All of a sudden I saw glass flying towards us, and I was knocked to the ground. When I got up all I could hear was Craig running and screaming Isaac's name," Sarah told the ABC.
Craig raced out to an upturned lounge room and his son still in his high chair with a big piece of glass in his chest, and live wires dangling above him from the roof.
Image: ABC.