On Monday, the Beirut Fire Department seized over 1,000 liters of poorly-stored fuel from a warehouse in Beirut’s Tariq Al-Jdideh neighborhood.
The neighborhood is still recovering from a deadly blast that took place merely 10 days ago, killing 4, injuring over 50 people including children, and sending waves of panicked flashbacks to the Aug. 4 chemical explosion.
According to Beirut Municipality, 1,185 liters of gasoline, three barrels of kerosene, and 150 liters of diesel were seized in the warehouse, located near Makassed General Hospital.
The municipality said that upon inspection, the warehouse did not meet the minimum requirements of public safety conditions and that its fire extinguishers were expired.
Last week, ISF reportedly seized 11,000 of diesel stored in a hazardous way in a residential building in Beirut and arrested the owner. They urged citizens to report all material stored unsafely to avoid disasters.
People have been stocking gasoline and diesel in their stores and homes in preparation for the coming difficult phase that will follow the end of the central bank’s subsidy of combustibles.
In order to prevent the risk of explosions and fires, Beirut’s Governor Marwan Abboud has had to issue recently an official prohibition in an attempt to stop people from storing combustibles in buildings and residential areas.
The expected end of the subsidy of essentials has been of great concern to the people, who have been trying to deal as it is with a difficult economic and financial crisis that continues to deepen.
