BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon: A fire tore through a camp for Syrian refugees in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, killing three people on Sunday, officials said.
Flames and thick clouds of black smoke rose from the site near the town of Qab Elias, around a hour’s drive east of Beirut, and at least one explosion was seen in footage broadcast by Lebanon’s MTV.
Reuters TV footage showed little was left by the blaze as a fire truck doused down the still smouldering ground.
A Syrian refugee said many of the people living at the camp had fled to Lebanon from the Raqa area of Syria.
“We’ve started the assessment as to how many tents have been damaged. As soon as the assessment is done we will provide the families with all the help they need,” UNHCR spokeswoman Dana Sleiman said.
“Apparently it started with a cooking stove. We are waiting to confirm that,” she said.
Lebanon is hosting at least one million registered Syrian refugees, many of them living in tented settlements scattered around the country. The government says there are about 1.5 million Syrians in the country.
Residents said one of the victims was a child but the Red Cross did not confirm the report.
Red Cross volunteers and firefighters were still helping wounded refugees out of the camp to receive treatment.
Residents of nearby villages could be seen using their own trucks and tractors to bring tanks of water to help extinguish the blaze.
Zafer al Nakhlawi, a Lebanese who lives in Qab Elias, said he came to the camp to help firefighters put out the blaze.
“There are only three tents left standing out of the camp’s 93 tents. Part of a nearby wheat field was also burned,” Nakhlawi said.
It was unclear what caused the fire, but Nakhlawi said he suspected that scorching temperatures of 36 degrees Celsius and the valley’s whipping winds may have been a factor.
The blaze came two days after clashes in two refugee camps in Lebanon’s northeast left a young girl dead and seven Lebanese soldiers wounded. — Agencies
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