Major fire at Nabatieh carpet factory extinguished

BEIRUT — A major fire at a carpet factory in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon was extinguished Sunday, forty-two hours after it first erupted, the National News Agency reported.

Here’s what we know:

    • Civil Defense firefighters are now in the process of cooling the areas exposed to the fire in the Kabalan carpet factory, located in Zefta, in the Nabatieh region, the NNA said, adding that the fire is estimated to have caused losses worth millions of dollars at the factory, which employed over 250 people.

    • The Civil Defense, for its part, said in a statement that its firefighters worked alongside the Lebanese Army and Austrian UNIFIL peacekeeping troops to extinguish the fire, which erupted at around 6:30 p.m. on Friday.

    • In a statement Saturday, Nabatieh Gov. Hassan Fakih called the fire a “disaster and a tragedy” and thanked the firefighting teams, the army and UNIFIL for their efforts.

    • The exact cause of the fire is still unknown, with Civil Defense saying on Sunday it had started in the basement of the factory, with flames moving up the elevator shaft to the third and fourth floors of the facility. Flammable materials in the workshop helped contribute to its spread, Civil Defense explained.