How Kiwi just missed deadly blast
Lorna Butler should have been in Beirut at time of huge explosion
New Zealander Lorna Butler was due to take the family cat to the vet in downtown Beirut when a devastating explosion ripped through the city.
But she was probably spared because her husband was late getting back home with the car — stuck in traffic.
Butler, a makeup artist originally from Dunedin, said her architect husband, Maroun Sfeir, had gone into Beirut to visit the Australian embassy to get a special transit visa to Australia, to help in the family’s bid to get to New Zealand.
But for some reason, the office was closed.
Speaking to the Weekend Herald, she said it was fate that had possibly saved both their lives.
“We’re alive. It was a close call.
“[The Australian embassy] is always open — always. But on this day, they were closed. He got back late because of traffic.”
Instead, the family heard the explosion from the safety of their home on top of a mountain in the town of Ajaltoun, 24km north of the
city.
“We were just sitting outside when we heard this almighty boom — just this ‘whoosh’. It just transcended . . . and there was something of a gravitational pull through your body.” Butler described the fear that suddenly came over her and she heard herself saying “it’s a bomb” over and over.
Other family members quickly spoke over her, saying it was “just fireworks” to avoid scaring her 4-year-old son Enzo.
We heard this almighty boom — just this ‘whoosh’.
Lorna Butler
“I said: ‘Enzo, get inside!’ I was expecting the sky to open up and to see missiles.”
The blast death toll has climbed to 135, with up to 5000 injured, but both figures are expected to rise.
Two days after the explosion, Butler and her husband decided to head into the city to help clean up.
“I wanted to be a part of that. I went down there and took a broom with me,” she said.
Despite all the rubble and broken buildings, people were out in force working to clear the debris.
“The Lebanese people know this war-torn city. They’re used to this — people are used to walking on rubble in this country.”
But when they arrived, Butler said many buildings were so badly damaged, they knew they would need to be demolished.
“I just put my broom back in the car,” she said.
She tried to find the veterinary building where she was meant to be on that fateful day.
“I couldn’t find it. It’s weird — I was asking myself: ‘Would I have survived?’”
Butler and her family are now working harder than ever to get to New Zealand, where they have hopes of setting up a new life — one that would also enable them to be closer to
Butler’s elderly father.
“People there don’t know how lucky you are. We have power cuts nearly every day and sometimes we don’t have water.
“My husband loves New Zealand and says the first thing he will do when we get off the plane is kiss the ground.”