A store of oil and tyres at Beirut port burst into flames on Thursday, prompting some residents to flee the city still traumatised by a massive blast a little more than a month ago which devastated the port and surrounding residential area of the Lebanese capital.
Photo: AFP
Officials said no one was injured in the latest fire. It was not immediately clear why the oil and tyres had erupted in flames and Army helicopters dropped water as firefighters battled on the ground to bring the blaze under control.
By nightfall, officials said most flames had been extinguished. Smoke still rose from smouldering wreckage but it was far less dense.
The blaze strained nerves already on edge. The city is reeling from the 4 August port blast that killed about 190 people and injured 6000 people, and the nation is grappling with a deep economic crisis that has posed the biggest threat to Lebanon's stability since its 1975-1990 civil war.
The head of Lebanon's Red Cross, George Kettaneh, said there was no fear of another explosion as a result of the flames and said there were no injuries, although he said there were some people suffering from shortness of breath as a result.
"For sure we were scared, it's only been a month since the explosion that destroyed Beirut. We saw the same thing happening again," 53-year-old Andre Muarbes said after soot and ash settled on vehicles and buildings across parts of the capital.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun told top security officials meeting about the blaze that the fire could have been the result of sabotage, technical error or negligence, and the cause had to be uncovered quickly.
Many Lebanese are frustrated that they have yet to be told about any initial findings from an investigation into last month's port explosion.
Michel Najjar, public works minister in the outgoing government which resigned in the wake of the blast, told Lebanon's MTV initial indications suggested the blaze was sparked by welding work during repairs at the port.
A security source had also blamed welding work for the fire preceding the 4 August blast.
A city shocked and aid supply threatened
The Red Cross said it had aid in a warehouse that was on fire. "Our humanitarian operation risks to be seriously disrupted," ICRC Middle East director Fabrizio Carboni wrote on Twitter.
Beirut's port is used by aid agencies to supply refugees in Lebanon and people in need in neighbouring Syria.
A military source said Thursday's blaze appeared to have started when cooking oil caught fire and spread to stores of tyres. Television footage had shown flames licking up near a pile of tyres in a warehouse ruined in last month's explosion.
Majed Hassanein, 49, was taking his wife and two children out of the capital by car during the height of the blaze. "I am forced to get them out of Beirut from the smoke and the fire that is happening at the port again," he said.
He said his son still suffered from shock from the earlier blast that had left about 300,000 people without inhabitable homes and shattering windows across Beirut.
Carmen Geha, an activist and associate professor at the American University of Beirut, said the fire was further proof of mismanagement by a ruling elite, who have dragged the nation into crisis after years of corruption and poor governance.
"It's a gross crime, gross negligence and gross arrogance," she said. "You can't trust them to manage anything."
Firefighters were shown on television dousing the fire surrounded by mangled remains of warehouses destroyed in last month's explosion, which was caused by a store of ammonium nitrate kept in poor condition at the port for years.
- Reuters