- Title: Firefighters tackle wildfires south of Beirut
- Date: 15th October 2019
- Summary: BAAWARTA, LEBANON (OCTOBER 15, 2019) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS OF WILDFIRES / SMOKE RISING DAMOUR, LEBANON (OCTOBER 15, 2019) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS OF FIRES INSIDE A CENTRE FOR PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS FIREFIGHTERS EXTINGUISHING FIRES / AMBULANCES PARKED OUTSIDE BUILDING VARIOUS OF FIRE
- Embargoed: 29th October 2019 20:32
- Keywords: Lebanon wildfires special needs centre Damour Lebanon Baawarta Lebanon
- Location: BAAWARTA AND DAMOUR, LEBANON
- City: BAAWARTA AND DAMOUR, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Wildfires/Forest Fires
- Reuters ID: LVA001B17MHC7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Wildfires that have swept across Lebanon since Monday (October 14) continued on Tuesday. Fires have burned swathes of the country's forest and killed at least one person, prompting Beirut to deploy water cannons and call on its neighbours for help.
In Damour, south of Beirut, a building for a local non-governmental organization caught fire. Lebanon's Red Cross said that 18 people have so far been hospitalized and 88 have received emergency medical care.
A civil defence official said earlier on Tuesday that 104 fires had broken out over the past 24 hours, and that residents had been evacuated from homes and buildings to minimize the toll.
The fires have left charred trees and burned-out cars and have overpowered Lebanon's fire brigades, prompting appeals to neighbouring states to send aircraft to bolster efforts.
The cause of the flames, which has spread from woods south of Beirut up to pine forests in the north, remains unknown, though some officials have blamed an autumn heatwave that hit the country in recent days.
(Production: Yara Abi Nader, Hassan Hankir) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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