Beirut Explosion Caused by Fire Kills Dozens, Injures Thousands The blast occurred after a warehouse with highly explosive material caught fire
https://www.wsj.com/articles/lebanon-struck-by-blast-at-beirut-port-11596556605?mod=hp_lead_pos5
BEIRUT—Dozens of people were confirmed dead and thousands more injured after a massive explosion caused by a warehouse fire rocked Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut.
The warehouse held highly explosive material, said an official with Lebanon’s army who added that the blast was likely caused by a fire and wasn’t an attack. President Trump, however, on Tuesday evening called it a “terrible attack” and said U.S. military leaders believe the explosion was caused by “a bomb of some kind.”
The explosive material, which Lebanese officials identified as ammonium nitrate, had been kept at the warehouse for the past six years, according to Prime Minister Hassan Diab. “All those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price,” Mr. Diab said.
The explosion, which produced a giant orange mushroom cloud over the city, was yet another trauma for Beirut residents who have survived wars and numerous bombings in the past. They now face the challenge of rebuilding at a time of strained resources due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The blast is the latest blow for Lebanon, a country already reeling from multiple crises in recent months, ranging from large street protests over government corruption to an economy on the brink of collapse after years of mismanagement. Before the explosion, which shook the whole of Beirut, Lebanon’s economy was in free fall and ordinary Lebanese citizens were struggling with soaring prices of food and other goods, as well as long daily power cuts.
Firefighters extinguishing flames following a large explosion in Beirut on Tuesday.
Photo: Hasan Shaaban/Bloomberg News
The explosion destroyed one of Lebanon’s most important international ports and severely damaged Beirut’s cosmopolitan city center, with its neighborhoods of restaurants and concrete apartment buildings, and its iconic corniche on the Mediterranean. The city’s core neighborhoods, home to countless cafes, bars, and artist studios, are at the heart of Beirut’s role as a regional cultural hub with global aspirations.
The shock wave and vast plume of smoke quickly transformed the city center into a surreal scene blanketed in dust and debris as stunned residents fled their homes and rushed the wounded to hospitals. Vehicles carried injured people, their arms and legs hanging limp from car windows. Dust hung in the air.
The blast damaged the facades of apartment blocks nearby, shattered windows and tore balconies and doors asunder. It blanketed the streets with dust and broken glass. Bloody and injured people were trying to reach hospitals and wave down ambulances, which struggled to navigate streets filled with debris and wrecked cars.
The explosion left a swath of destruction at Beirut’s port, one of Lebanon’s vital economic arteries. Video footage reviewed by The Wall Street Journal showed a swath of rubble, piles of metal and burning fires at the port.
People stood outside the emergency ward of a hospital in central Beirut following the explosion.
Photo: janine haidar/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The Lebanese health ministry requested that the wounded be brought to hospitals in areas surrounding Beirut to relieve pressure on facilities in the capital, the state news agency reported. Lebanese President Michel Aoun directed the military to help respond to the blast, the agency also reported.
“Having witnessed the horrific explosions at the Port this evening, our heartfelt sympathies go out to the victims and their families. We mourn each loss from this terrible tragedy alongside the Lebanese people,” said the U.S. ambassador in Beirut, Dorothy Shea, according to the embassy’s official Twitter account.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wrote on Twitter: “Our hearts and prayers are with the people of Lebanon, and the victims of the horrific explosion in Beirut. I urge both the Trump Administration and international community to immediately mobilize assistance to the thousands injured in the blast.’’
Hospitals quickly overflowed with those arriving with injuries from the blast.
At the Hôtel-Dieu de France hospital, a young girl with a bandaged head and blood-soaked shirt was sitting on a table, crying out for her father, who was sitting on the floor nearby with a bandaged head and his legs elevated. Nearby, doctors were working frantically to try to save a boy on a mat on the floor of the hospital.
At least one hospital, the American University hospital in Beirut’s Hamra district, reached capacity and was no longer able to accept wounded people, Lebanon’s state news agency said.
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