Lebanese Civil Defense Volunteers Are Lacking Basic Equipment

The forgotten heroes at the frontline of Beirut port’s explosion.

The amount of death and destruction that the Beirut explosion left behind is beyond shocking. August 4th will always be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of Lebanon.

The event has undoubtedly been nerve-wracking for Lebanese in Lebanon and abroad, especially for those affected by the blast.

But to witness first-hand an explosion of such enormous magnitude, and to be there on the ground, pulling bodies from under the collapsed buildings, and scanning through the haunting scene to try to locate and save people must be an exceptionally traumatic experience, to say the least.

Though the description fits for a scene in a post-apocalyptic world in some fiction book or a motion picture, it is real to what numerous volunteers have been living through since the August 4th explosion.

From the first hours after the explosion, Lebanese Civil Defense (Difa3 el Madani) teams, alongside the other swift responders to the tragedy, have been present at the blast site, working tirelessly to assist and rescue their fellow citizens.

Despite severely lacking resources and equipment, Civil Defense volunteers have remained on the frontline of the rescue missions from day-one, risking their lives to contribute to saving others and, being volunteers, doing it just out of humanness and patriotic duties.

But this does not mean that they don’t need support.

While the world focuses on the efforts on the NGOs active in this catastrophe, most notably the Lebanese Red Cross – which also needs and deserves every bit of support – the Civil Defense has unfortunately been unintentionally overlooked.

Search and rescue missions, fire-fighting tasks, and other crucial relief efforts are very exhaustive operations. They require a massive amount of resources and equipment that get drained and worn out quickly in the process.

Today, nearly two weeks after the explosion, Civil Defense volunteers are being forced by these shortages to share their most basic equipment – even helmets, in some cases – to carry out their work, as a volunteer who wished to remain anonymous informed The961.

It is, therefore, important to not only recognize the immense effort of these volunteers but to also give back to them and help boost both their morale and humanitarian work by providing them with the support they desperately need.

To explain the above video: Issam was carrying out his humanitarian duty as a volunteer in the civil defense when the building crumbled down. He got saved by his team after being 15 hours under the rubble.

The Lebanese Civil Defense needs the Lebanese people’s support, and the support of the world, to help its volunteers keep up their diligent work on the ground, for the victims and their families, and for all of Lebanon.