A massive fire erupted around 12 p.m on Wednesday in the forest of Mansourieh, El-Metn, about 10 Km from Beirut, causing panic among the residents and the forest to burn for hours.
Four hours later, the wildfire was still raging, despite the firefighters’ efforts. It expanded enough for families to be forced to evacuate their homes.
By 8 p.m, fires were finally put out only to have them restart at midnight until the Lebanese Civil Defense finally managed to extinguish them.
The cause of the fires was later discovered to be due to shattered glasses of the Beirut explosion that were dumped in the forest.
It is unknown, as of yet, who dumped the debris there. There have been countless volunteers and many NGOs helping out with that, including the municipalities.
All, however, are urged to send the shattered glass, and any recyclable debris, to recycling companies so they won’t impose a similar threat to the environment, to those residing around, and to the firefighters who risk their lives during these missions.
