Firefighters managed to control the massive fire which broke out on Saturday morning in a parking lot on Hamra Street, near the Barbar restaurant, where several cars quickly caught fire, after the explosion of a generator.
The flames quickly spread to adjacent buildings where cases of asphyxiation were reported. Panicked, residents did not wait for the firefighters to arrive to try to escape the flames. Videos on social media showed people hanging from ropes hanging from their balconies trying to save their lives. One of them unfortunately fell, but according to preliminary information, his life is not in danger.
Others held their babies in the air so they could get oxygen, while smoke filled the apartments.
A thick black cloud covered the region’s skies as firefighters worked to put out the fast-spreading fire, while others evacuated families in nearby apartments.
The outgoing Minister of the Interior, Bassam Maalaoui, followed with the Director General of Civil Defense, Raymond Khattar, the efforts to put out the fire. He also contacted the mohafez of Beirut, Marwan Abboud, for the Beirut firefighters to send reinforcements to Hamra Street where the fire threatened to spread dangerously.
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