- Title: Lebanese people come together as wildfires abate
- Date: 16th October 2019
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LEBANESE CITIZEN, GHASSAN SALMAN, SAYING: "Yesterday, our hearts burnt over the fires. It is shame this happened to 'Green Lebanon', we thank God who saved Lebanon with His holy care. If it wasn't for rain, fires might still be going on until now." HAMRA STREET VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN THE STREETS
- Embargoed: 30th October 2019 17:18
- Keywords: Lebanon fire Lebanon wildfire Lebanon firefighters Lebanese wildfire environment climate change
- Location: MECHREF, SAADIYAT, DEBBIYE AND BEIRUT, LEBANON
- City: MECHREF, SAADIYAT, DEBBIYE AND BEIRUT, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Fires
- Reuters ID: LVA003B1CKW9H
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: As Lebanese civil defense members and firefighting aircrafts continued to put out what was left of the country's wildfires on Wednesday (October 16), volunteers came to their side to offer food, drinks and support.
As firefighters worked in Saadiyat, south of Beirut on Wednesday, residents in the area came and helped them.
Volunteers with Dafa campaign distributed food, water and drinks - as they have been doing since Tuesday morning when the wildfires picked up in the country.
Hundreds of fires have swept across the country since Monday. The fires started to fade out after rainfall hit most affected areas on Tuesday night.
The flames burned swathes of forest and killed at least one person, prompting Beirut to deploy water cannons and to call on neighbouring countries like Cyprus and Greece for help.
Municipality police member in Saadiyat and Chouf area, Youssef Charafeddine, described how Lebanese people spontaneously came together in the past two days to fight the fires in unity.
Dafa volunteers rushed to help on Tuesday and were still providing some nutrition and medical aid on Wednesday.
A Dafa campaign coordinator explained how an operation room was set up on Tuesday in response to the wildfires.
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.
In Beirut, newspapers kiosk displayed today's papers - all with headlines commenting on the fires.
One citizen, Ghassan Salman, walking in Hamra street, said people's hearts "burnt with the fires", adding that he was grateful for Tuesday night's rain.
(Production: Alaa Kanaan, Ahmad El Kerdi, Imad Creidi, Yara Abi Nader) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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