BEIRUT: A store of oil and tires at Beirut port caught fire on Thursday, a military source said, a little more than a month after a massive blast devastated the port and a surrounding residential area of the Lebanese capital.
The fire erupted in the duty-free zone of the port, sending a huge column of smoke above the city. The military source said the cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.
Another fire !!! we really can’t take this anymore #Beirut #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/9eBCm5yO4j
— Larissa Aoun (@LarissaAounSky) September 10, 2020
Television footage showed firefighters trying to douse the blaze at the port, where warehouses and concrete grain silos were shattered by the Aug. 4 blast.
About 190 people were killed in last month’s explosion and a swathe of Beirut near the port was ruined. The blast was caused by a huge store of ammonium nitrate that had been kept at the port in poor condition for years.
The August 4 explosion left at least 300,000 people homeless and caused $15 billion in direct damage, said the report issued on Sunday by the presidency of the council of ministers.
