Rescuers amid the rubble of a building that collapsed following a fire on Dec. 24, 2024. (Photo obtained by our correspondent Michel Hallak.)
Two Lebanese firefighters lost their lives Tuesday evening while battling a fire in a warehouse located on the ground floor of a building in Mina, Tripoli, North Lebanon. The structure suddenly collapsed onto the teams working to extinguish the blaze, our regional correspondent reported, citing local and Civil Defense sources.
Abdallah Mohtadi, a member of the Lebanese Civil Defense, and Khalil Achkar, from Tripoli’s fire brigade, were killed in the incident, which also left 18 people injured, including five rescuers. The rescue teams were extinguishing the fire in the Zaylah building’s warehouse and evacuating residents when the six-story building collapsed on them.
Ten of the injured were hospitalized.
Two buildings evacuated
The Interior Ministry's Directorate General of Civil Defense confirmed the deaths of two firefighters in a press release issued Wednesday and outlined the circumstances of the previous day’s operations.
According to the statement, the fire erupted at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in a hardware warehouse containing "large quantities of flammable materials." Teams from Civil Defense and other organizations evacuated the burning building and a neighboring structure, which housed diesel tanks.
During operations inside the warehouse, the building suddenly collapsed. Abdallah Mohtadi, found alive but critically injured under the rubble, later died in the hospital, the Civil Defense confirmed. The body of Khalil Achkar was recovered around 4 a.m.
Firefighters successfully prevented the blaze from spreading to nearby buildings and continued efforts on Wednesday to fully extinguish the fire at its source, though its exact origin was not specified in the release.
For years, Tripoli has faced a series of building collapses, resulting in tragic deaths and injuries. Many of these structures are old and lack the necessary reinforcements to withstand the test of time, climate change, and occasional seismic activity in the region. On Dec. 13, a building’s roof in Tripoli collapsed, killing a woman.
