The silos of the port of Beirut after another collapse, August 23, 2022. (Credit: Mohammed Yassine)
BEIRUT —Firefighters resumed the cooling process of the Beirut port silos Tuesday after securing "special spray material and fungicides" from the Environment Ministry, according to a statement by the firefighter's office.
The northern sector of the silos, which were severely damaged in the Aug. 4 port explosion and more recently plagued by repeated fires, completely collapsed in August.
The commander of the Beirut Fire Brigade, Maher al-Ajouz, explained to L'Orient Today that the interruption of cooling was due to the need to treat the backfill due to the presence of fungi. The resumption was enabled by the arrival of a fungicidal product two days ago.
Ajouz also said that the Environment Ministry "ordered the firefighters to stop their [cooling] operations" after the detection of fungi in the air, which is potentially dangerous to health. "We will then spray the [fungicides] in the next two days, which will allow us to continue [cooling] operations," he continued.
The seat of the fire — that is, the location it started and from where it is spreading — has not yet been identified by officials.
During the second cooling phase, "the plan developed with the contractor to remove the fill will continue" and "the third and final phase will be the total extinction of the fire," according to a statement from the Beirut Fire Brigade.
At the end of August, caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassine announced the beginning of the cooling operations of the silos.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati decided to classify the southern block —the only bloc still standing — as a heritage monument, modifying a previous decision to destroy it.
Families of the explosion victims regularly call for the preservation of the remaining silos, which destroyed a large part of Beirut and killed more than 220 people, injuring an additional 6,500.