Lebanon's Unspeakable Incompetence
"[It was as if] the world became yellow.""There's no way you can imagine the traffic. It wasn't moving. And I made sure that I'm in the middle of the road, far from cars, far from glass, because honestly I was just waiting for something to explode."Moustafa, Port area, Beirut, Lebanon"[The blaze was caused by] welding work taking place near the warehouse. What happened is the result of negligence and inexperience.""[Action would be taken by the Public Prosecution], unfortunately, what is done is done."Lebanon’s Minister of Justice Marie-Claude Najm
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| An army helicopter drops water on a fire at warehouses at the seaport in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 10. 2020. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) |
Moustafa sprinted from the cafe in Gemmayzeh, urging others nearby to evacuate the area, as he snaked through traffic, while others were desperately trying to leave the neighbourhood that had been so horribly devastated by the explosions that destroyed a third of Lebanon's capital a month ago. Reaching his home, he immediately flung open his windows and doors in an effort to limit the potential of their shattering should another explosion occur. "Just waiting", he said.
It was as though fate thought that Beirutis hadn't experienced enough trauma when 200 people were killed and thousands injured in the powerful blast that shook entire neighbourhoods displacing hundreds of thousands of residents when a warehouse holding 2,750 tones of explosive ammonium nitrate detonated and a crater 14 metres deep was left. The firefighters that rushed to the scene last month were again called on to respond when a massive fire broke out again.
This time at another warehouse with oil and tires in storage. Re-traumatizing a city already in dire straits. The stench of sulphur and burned rubber quickly spread across the capital as smoke plumes filled the air. Operations were speedily underway to extinguish the fire, with Lebanese army military helicopters dispatched to assist in controlling the fire.
The team of firefighters led by Michel al-Murr, frantically working to control the fire, and skilled in rescue missions, worked with the efficiency of a trained group accustomed to dealing with spectacularly dangerous scenarios. Their expertise failed, however, in discerning how the fire started. According to a customs officer working at the port containers storing humanitarian aid for the city were caught in the fire.
Port workers, assailed for a second time with the prospect of impending death as an outcome of yet another mysterious conflagration, were caught on footage showing them racing from the scene. "Highly flammable substances, such as rubber and oils, were burning, and
this necessitated taking exceptional measures in handling the
situation", explained Brig.Gen.Raymond Khattar, director general of Civil Defense.
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| Fire burns in the port in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 10. 2020. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) |
Labels: Administrative Incompetence, Beirut, Lebanon
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, September 12, 2020
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