Beirut Port on Fire, Civil Defense Move Swiftly

Tue 08 Sep 2020 | 06:44 PM

A new fire broke out at Lebanon’s Beirut port on Tuesday a little over one month after the August 4 fire that caused an explosion that rocked the capital.

Lebanese were terrified of living the scenes of August 4 again, when a violent explosion rocked the port of Beirut.

Later, the Civil Defense reported that the reason behind the fire was the burning of the remnants of the explosion at the request of the Lebanese army, which asked support from the civil defense in case the fire spread.

“The brain does not forget.” Those were the words of one doctor when talking about the August 4 Beirut port explosion.

One month on, Lebanese are still reeling from the blast caused by a fire that ignited 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at the port. People are still putting lives and homes back together, and on Friday, the search still continued for survivors.

In a country accustomed to war and violence, Lebanese are now trying to cope with a new kind of emotional trauma.