A massive fire broke out at the Port of Beirut on Thursday, incinerating a warehouse full of tires and oil within the port’s free zone. The same area was heavily damaged in the ammonium nitrate explosion that leveled the central port area and the adjacent waterfront on August 4.
According to Lebanon’s civil defense agency, the fire has been substantially brought under control as of Thursday afternoon, if not yet entirely extinguished.
Newly-appointed port director Bassem Kaissi told Al Jazeera that the facility that caught fire was a warehouse leased to BCC Logistics. The firm had reportedly been working on rebuilding the facility when the fire broke out, and its fire detection and suppression systems had not yet been restored.