Beirut port blast survivors relive trauma as silos burn

BEIRUT: Rita Qadan’s heart skips a beat whenever she talks about how she survived the devastating explosion in Beirut’s Port two years ago. And every time she sees the massive port silos, she is reminded again of her trauma.

The port’s grain silos destroyed in the blast — a massive, charred ruin jutting into the sky — have been burning for weeks after remnants of the grains that withstood the 2020 explosion started fermenting and ignited in the summer heat. The Lebanese government said last week the fire expanded after flames reached nearby electrical cables. Experts warn the structure could collapse at any time.

On that fateful Aug.4, 2020, hundreds of tonnes of explosive ammonium nitrate improperly stored in the port for years, detonated, killing more than 200 people injuring over 6,000. Entire parts of the city around the port were destroyed in the blast, and the tragedy became a searing trauma on the psyche of the entire Lebanese population.

Today, Qadan still works as a concierge at a building in Beirut’s Mar Mikhael neighbourhood, where she has lived for decades, her small apartment tucked in the corner of the ground floor.

The area along Beirut’s waterfront has a direct view of the port and the smouldering silos. The smoke brings back horrible memories, Qadan says as she waters her plants.

The stench, seeping into her modest two-room apartment, is dizzying, she says. “I just wear my mask and stay indoors,” Qadan told reporters, her voice trembling. “I’m really scared that they could fall.”

Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who volunteered for the government-commissioned team of experts, says the north block’s collapse in the port is inevitable and just a matter of time.

In Geneva, he has been monitoring the tilting silos from thousands of miles away using data produced by sensors he installed over a year ago, and updating a team of Lebanese government and security officials on the developments in a Whatsapp group.

“Two weeks ago the silos were tilting at 2 millimeters per day, and in the last week that has accelerated to 2.5 millimeters per hour, and that rapidly accelerates as the fire continues and causes more structural damage,” Durand said.