The massive wildfires that ripped through more than a hundred areas across Lebanon and for more than 24 hours are finally extinguished. It was confirmed by Minister of Interior and Municipalities Raya Hassan in a televised interview on MTV.
@maglebanonMinister Hassan, who was in action during the whole day, appeared from the operation room in the ministry in a televised live interview during the MTV show Menna w Jerr where she answered some of the questions, reassuring everyone that the fires have been extinguished.
“All the fires have been put out and the rain has helped us,” Minister Hassan said pointing out that “we have been working since yesterday and all the competent bodies were ready to face all fires.”
She explained, “The mechanism that has been put in place has made us join forces to secure control of all fires. I do not see any default. All agencies worked on the ground and cooperated to control all the fires; the army, the civil defense, and the general security.”
@blueforce.lbShe also pointed out that “the Civil Defense has done a heroic work and the army helicopters have been cooperating with the Civil Defense since early morning and have carried out several air tours,” mentioning that “we have a lot of countries that offered to help us […]”
In answer to the question of whether the fires were fabricated, she stressed: “There is no information in this context and I have not received any report from the army or security forces, and tomorrow we will communicate with the intelligence and information agency to follow up investigations.”
@lbcilebanonEarlier this Monday, dozens of fires erupted through different areas in Lebanon. It started from the Shouf village of Meshref, leaving people in shock, and causing a huge mess all over the country and a state of emergency where officials called for international help to battle these forest fires.
In this regard, huge local and international efforts were put on the ground to extinguish the wildfires that left tragic scenes all around Lebanon. Cyprus and Greece have rushed firefighting planes to help the Lebanese firefighters and army extinguish the fires.
Later on, the Jordan Armed Forces, in cooperation with the Civil Defence Department, sent two units of its Royal Air Force Super Puma aircraft with fire-fighting equipment and their crews to help as well in battling the forest wildfires.
Sudden rain in different areas in Lebanon also helped in putting some of the fires after many hours of the spread of those massive fires across different areas in Lebanon.
Regretfully, a citizen died from suffocation during his volunteering to help extinguish blazing flames for several hours. A woman also lost her life after being run over by a fire truck in the southern coastal city of Sidon.
The Lebanese Redcross also reported that many people were affected mostly from smoke inhalation, minor burns, and other light injuries.