BEIRUT: Lebanese firefighters on Friday put out a blaze at Beirut port that brought back the trauma of last month’s deadly dockside explosion and destroyed badly needed food aid.
Fire crews used cranes to hose down the last smouldering embers of the fire that swept through already damaged warehouses on Thursday.
But popular anger at the authorities’ failure to provide public safety, even in the heart of the capital, was rekindled by the new blaze.
The fire broke out on Thursday afternoon as workers were carrying out repair work on some of the warehouses still standing after last month’s explosion.
Sparks from a power saw being used in the repairs were the likely cause of the blaze, according to the government’s preliminary findings.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said one of the warehouses contained precious food aid for tens of thousands of needy families in Lebanon and in neighbouring Syria.
It said it had been working on moving the supplies out of the damaged warehouse ever since the August 4 blast but the operation had still been ongoing when the fire hit.
“Due to the rubble present and the danger involved, it is not possible to confirm the level of loss incurred at this time,” an ICRC statement said.
“The explosion and the fire will no doubt have an impact on the ICRC’s humanitarian aid whether in Lebanon or Syria.”
The Lebanese presidency has said that 15,000 tonnes of rubble had been cleared inside the port area after the August 4 explosion.
On Friday, earthmovers were again at work clearing rubble from the port through which the vast majority of Lebanon’s food and other imports used to pass.
“The fire is very weak. There’s just one area we’re still dealing with. It’s nothing,” said George Abou Moussa, operations director of Lebanon’s civil defence agency.
‘PEOPLE WERE TERRIFIED’
The sight of a vast pall of smoke billowing over the port district on Thursday, barely a month after the colossal blast killed more than 190 people and ravaged tens of thousands of homes, sent terrified residents running onto the streets.
— AFP
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