The Washington Post picked up on the parallels with the Halifax Explosion in this piece by John Bacon that appeared on the weekend:
How the explosive destruction of Halifax holds lessons — and hope — for Beirut
Bacon authored the 2017 book
The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism. It's a very readable book, if a bit US-centric. In my opinion the best book about the Explosion remains
Curse of The Narrows: The Halifax Disaster of 1917 by Laura MacDonald (2005). MacDonald saw the parallels between Halifax and another traumatic event of our time, the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Centre (which she watched from the window of her Harlem apartment). Both books are worth reading.
A final note, for those who haven't seen it. CBC reported a few weeks ago the discovery of what appears to be a previously unknown photo of the Explosion.
A municipal archives in Belleville ON discovered the photo in a collection they acquired in 2012. The validity of the photo is still uncertain, but the research done so far seems to support the theory the image was shot by Reginald Stevens, a mate aboard HMCS Niobe at the time of the Explosion.
The photo and the article:
Is this 'surreal nightmare' an unpublished photo of the Halifax Explosion?