Firefighters manage to douse a fire in a fuel storage tank at the Zahrani oil facility in southern India. Lebanon. It is not yet known what caused the fire.
Lebanese forces evacuated the area amid fears that the fire could spread and explode, according to Al Jadeed TV channel. Traffic near the oil installation was also diverted for security reasons.
Firefighters set fire to fuel tanks in Lebanon — Photo: Ali Hankir/Reuters
An eyewitness said the fire, which had thrown a huge column of smoke into the sky, appeared to have been extinguished.
“The fire has been brought under control,” Energy Minister Walid Fayed said in a Twitter statement published by the prime minister’s office.
He also sought a report on the cause of the fire in a fuel tank of the Lebanese army.
A security source told Reuters that nearby storage tanks were being cooled to prevent the fire from spreading and that they were diverting traffic from facilities in a sparsely populated area.
The facility at Zahrani, about 8 km south of the city of Sidon, is one of the main power plants in the country.
The fire is the latest disaster to hit Lebanon, where fuel shortages amid a deepening economic crisis have forced the country’s two largest power plants, one in Zahrani and one in Deir Ammar, to shut down on Saturday. . shut down caused a blackout No country.
Power was restored after the Lebanese military supplied about 6,000 kiloliters of gas oil to both plants, the Energy Ministry said on Sunday (10).
Blackout in Lebanon: The country is in the dark since power plants shut down due to fuel shortage
Lebanon is passing through a period of severe economic crisis and political chaos, which was aggravated by Beirut port explosion a year ago. In September, the country finally got a . managed to reach the formation of new government, with the appointment of Najib Mikati as Prime Minister.
Lebanese are more dependent on private generators for electricity, with expensive fuel oil bills, as the state-owned power company provides only a few hours of service a day for citizens.
