Four dead in Beirut fuel tank fire and blast
Beirut, Lebanon - An explosion and a fuel tank fire in the Lebanese capital Friday killed four people, rescuers said as panic spread in a city already ravaged by a monster blast in August.
A Beirut television station said more than 30 people were hurt in the conflagration, with a medical source adding that three children were hospitalised with burns.
Firefighters using mobile ladders evacuated people from buildings in the bustling district of Tariq al Jdide.
‘The number of victims increased to four,’ the Lebanese Red Cross said on its Twitter account, updating the toll from two dead. Red Cross Secretary General Georges Kettane added that the ‘were injured transported to hospital’, the national news agency ANI reported.
Lebanese television Al-Jadeed reported that more than 30 people were injured as it broadcast images of flames in a street and sounds of people screaming in panic.
The state-run news agency said a fuel tank exploded, sparking a fire and causing casualties.
Fire Brigade Lieutenant Ali Najm said there was a fire and explosion in a warehouse containing a fuel oil tank, adding the cause of the explosion was still unknown.
A security source said the fire took hold in an underground premises where there was also petrol. The source said authorities arrested the owner who manages one of the many private generator services that supply residents with electricity when frequent power outages occur, the source said.
In the last few weeks, Beirut municipality has been looking for warehouses that could be in breach of the law or pose a danger to residential areas, governor Marwan Aboud told Al-Jadeed.
“We feared that such an accident could happen,” Aboud said, adding around 100 sites had been identified as suspect.
“We have ordered some of them to close and required others to put in place procedures to protect the public,” he added.