Fire in a disused petrol pipeline in the village of Tal Abbas in Akkar governorate on Aug. 17, 2023. (Credit: Michel Hallak/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — A fire broke out on Thursday in a petrol pipeline that has been disused for several decades in the village of Tal Abbas in Akkar governorate, according to the Civil Defense and a L'Orient Today reporter at the scene.
Civil Defense teams deployed to the site to extinguish the blaze, while local residents said they feared the fire might spread. Residents added that thefts were rampant along the pipeline, and they have called on the Directorate General of Oil to repair holes made by alleged thieves to stop dangerous petrol leakages.
It was not immediately clear by Thursday afternoon whether firefighters had finished putting out the fire.
Leaks have occurred regularly in recent years. In February, a fire broke out on a pipeline in the nearby village of Abdeh, also in Akkar governorate. In November 2022, unidentified individuals punctured a section of the pipeline, likely to obtain fuel, in the midst of a countrywide economic and energy crisis.
The pipeline, built nearly 90 years ago to transport petrol from Iraq to Tripoli via Syria, was closed at the start of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 but still contains quantities of the fuel.
Additional reporting by Michel Hallak