Huge fire at Beirut port weeks after deadly blast

A huge fire raged in Beirut port on Thursday, sparking alarm among Lebanese still reeling from the devastating dockside explosion that disfigured the capital last month.   

It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze just over a month after the August 4 blast which killed more than 190 people, wounded thousands and ravaged much of the capital.   

Huge columns of black smoke, visible from faraway neighbourhoods, billowed above the site of the fire.   
Haitham, a worker at a company at the port, told AFP how he fled the new fire in fear.   

 “We were working when all of a sudden they started yelling at us to get out,” he said. “There was welding going on... and a fire broke out. We don’t know what happened.   

 “We dropped everything and started running ... It reminded us of the explosion.” The interim head of the port, Bassem al-Kaissi, told Lebanese television channel LBC that the blaze started in the port’s free zone, where an importer had stocked cooking oil containers and tyres.   

The fire “started with oil containers before moving on to the tyres,” he said. “It was either caused by the heat or by a mistake. It’s too early to say.”   

The army reported it was responding to the fire, also saying it had broken out at a warehouse containing oil and tyres.   

 “Operations have begun to extinguish the fire and army helicopters will take part,” it said on Twitter.   
Social media users posted video footage which unsettled Beirut residents only just recovering from the country’s deadliest peacetime disaster.   

The August 4 blast sparked widespread outrage after it emerged authorities had been aware for years of the presence of the huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate that blew up, and the scandal forced the government to resign.   
BEIRUT AFP, 10 Sept, 2020