I woke up after the blast and the city was ruined
Irish woman tells of horrifying scenes in Beirut
AN Irish woman who was injured in the Beirut explosion has said that much of the city has been destroyed and her shop and café, just 750metres from the blast site, is ruined.
Niamh Fleming-Farrell, from Co. Laois, who co-owns Aaliya’s bookshop and café in Beirut, was blown backwards as the windows and door of the shop were smashed in during Monday’s explosion, which has left at least 136 dead and 5,000 injured.
Ms Fleming-Farrell described the frantic search for a hospital as her American friend helped her out of the badly damaged bookshop.
‘I have no memory of the explosion itself,’ said Ms Fleming-Farrell. ‘I was blown backwards and then woke up. My friend, Michelle, called her husband to come and get me because she was concerned about me.
‘I was vomiting and bruised and she and her husband were insisting that I get checked out. There was mayhem on the streets when we left, nobody knew quite what was happening. All of the buildings we could see were damaged. The city was ruined.
‘Unfortunately, three of Beirut’s hospitals were also very badly damaged in the explosion and the others filled up very quickly so we drove out of the city.
‘Beirut is built on a promontory looking out to the sea and there are mountains close behind that, so we drove up into the mountains looking for help. The hospitals in the villages were full too, I could see people pulling up at pharmacies looking for medicine.
‘We drove to one hospital but it was full up but my friend’s husband knew the director and, in true Lebanese style, called in a request to have me seen. I’m not sure how I feel about that but it was good to be checked out and there is no lasting damage, so I was lucky,’ she said.
She suffered bruising to her ankle, thigh and shoulders but has no broken bones.
‘There was nothing wrong with my brain. My vomiting was literally a visceral reaction to what had happened.’
She left her mobile phone in the bookshop and doesn’t know how she managed to get in contact with her parents in Laois to reassure them that she was not badly hurt.
The shop, about 750 metres from the port where the explosion happened, has a café and bar attached. None of the staff were injured as it was closed because of a recent coronavirus spike in Beirut.
Ms Fleming-Farrell had gone there to do some work when the explosion ripped through the street. The building beside hers is so badly damaged that it may have to be pulled down.
‘We are not allowed back into the bookshop. The building next door looks strange, like its facade has been pulled outwards. It might collapse within hours, so they are going to decide whether to try to stabilise it or pull it down,’ she said.
Her own second-floor apartment, about a ten-minute walk from the bookshop, is also badly damaged.
‘The windows and door blew in. My dog is OK and he is with me but my cat is missing,’ she said.
As she spoke yesterday, she was moving with her dog to a village outside Beirut to be with her friends, likely for several weeks while the massive clean up and search for bodies continues.
She contacted her insurance company yesterday, who told her that her policy doesn’t cover accidents of this nature and said that the Lebanese government should help the businesses affected. ‘We will have to talk to our lawyer about it. The Lebanese government is cash strapped at the moment and it’s doubtful they would be able to help,’ she said.
Ms Fleming-Farrell said she is relieved that the staff were not badly injured. ‘Normally, there are maybe six or seven staff but the government recently started allowing businesses to open some days and close other days because of the coronavirus.
‘We felt it just wasn’t worth opening and closing for a few days so we were shut when the explosion happened,’ she said.
Ms Fleming-Farrell is originally from Ballylinan, Co. Laois, and had been working in a book shop in Ireland when the economy collapsed in 2009. She applied for jobs all over the world and got a job in Beirut editing English language textbooks. She then set up an English-language book shop with a business partner.
The United Nations said yesterday that peacekeepers on a ship in Beirut port were injured, some seriously. No Irish soldiers are believed to have been injured.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun said yesterday that the blast stemmed from 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored unsafely in a warehouse, amid suggestions the material was confiscated from a ship in 2013. As many as 300,000 people may have been left homeless, Beirut’s governor Marwan Aboud said, with many buildings reduced to an uninhabitable mess of rubble and glass.
France has dispatched two planeloads of rescue workers and aid while Turkey is also sending rescue teams and emergency medical personnel. Cyprus was sending in emergency personnel and sniffer dogs. Iraq, Egypt and Jordan were also sending help and Pope Francis offered prayers for the Lebanese people.
The blast killed an Australian man and injured several foreign nationals, including 21 Bangladeshi sailors, at least 21 French, an Indonesian and an Italian.
‘Mayhem on the streets’ ‘The government is cash strapped’