A Civil Defense firetruck. (Credit: @CivilDefenseLB/Twitter)
BEIRUT — A massive fire that ravaged a textile warehouse near the airport road in Beirut's southern suburbs for two weeks was finally extinguished Monday, the Civil Defense said in a statement, adding that poor storage safety was to blame for the severity of the blaze.
Civil Defense firefighters also worked to cool down the three floors in the building where the fires had spread, "to make sure it doesn't re-ignite," the statement said.
The textile warehouse is located on the three lower floors of a building that contains apartments on its upper floors. Residents had to escape after the fire erupted. One Civil Defense firefighter died on the first day of the response and many more were injured.
It was not yet clear whether residents could return to their homes in the building. The Civil Defense planned to open an investigation into the fire's cause.
According to Charbel Msann, a Civil Defense spokesperson, the fire took so long to extinguish because, initially, firefighters only had one entry point to access the blaze. Later they were able to find entry points from the building's parking garage and from a spot where part of the building collapsed. "It eased the pressure on us instead of reaching the fire from one entry," Msann said.
Msann added that privately owned warehouses immediately surrounding the burning building also impeded access to the fire.
According to Msann, owners of the surrounding buildings were reluctant to allow access via their property as it could have increased the likelihood of the fire spreading to their properties.
Talal el Achkar, another Civil Defense spokesperson told L'Orient Today that the whereabouts of the warehouse owner have been unknown since the fire began.
Another factor that made the fire last so long was the sheer amount of goods that were stored in the warehouse, the Civil Defense said last week.
"Stocking products inside the warehouse near homes is very dangerous and should have been done under the supervision of the local authorities in the area, like the municipality, which is authorized to give the warehouse the license for general safety," the Civil Defense said.
"The products were piled up at the warehouse without any measures that take into account general safety rules, which resulted in obstructing the pathway to reach the source of the fire."
