A new massive wildfire erupted in Beit Meri after large fires broke out over the weekend in Tyre and Kaslik.
Residents, many of whom believe the incident is manmade, evacuated the area.
MP Ibrahim Kanaan contacted the Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi and the Director-General of the Civil Defense, discussing the Beit Meri fire and the need to contain it by all means and capabilities.
Mawlawi has been following up on the operations in Tyre, Beit Meri, and Kaslik since Saturday morning.
A large number of firefighting teams of the municipal unions and centers affiliated with the Civil Defense are trying to control the fires.
The Lebanese Army has also supplied them with helicopters that are actively flying back and forth, trying to secure more water tanks.
There are currently 18 Lebanese civil defense firefighting vehicles from across the country working to tame the fires.
Mawlwai requested the involved teams to quickly quench the flames and control their spreads. He instructed them to prepare temporary artificial ponds
He also checked up on the plight of the civil defense personnel, many of whom passed out as a result of the operations.
Director-General of the Civil Defense, Brigadier General Raymond Khattar, told MTV that the teams are working with all the available capabilities and with the support of the Lebanese Army.
“We seek to intensify efforts to protect people and their livelihoods because the Beit Meri fire is large. I don’t want to pre-empt investigations, but it seems that today’s fire was caused by arson,” Khattar informed MTV.
As of the time of writing, the intensity of the fire has only slightly decreased, and several blazing areas are still reportedly out of control as the teams are continuously trying to extinguish the fires.
Ashes from the fires have reached Beirut, as residents in the capital are reporting ashes “falling from the sky.”
