- Title: Beirut silos engineer views wreckage of giant construction project
- Date: 15th August 2020
- Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (RECENT - AUGUST 4, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FIRE NEAR BEIRUT PORT SILOS AFTER THE BLAST, PLUMES OF SMOKE RISING BEIRUT, LEBANON (AUGUST 14, 2020) (REUTERS) GABRIEL ASSIOUN, ONE OF THE ENGINEERS WHO BUILT THE SILOS, WALKING NEAR BLAST SITE AND LOOKING AT THE NOW-DAMAGED SILOS VARIOUS OF ASSIOUN GOING THROUGH A LEAFLET MADE AFTER BUILDING THE SILOS / ASSIOUN SHOWING HIS PHOTOGRAPH IN THE LEAFLET (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ONE OF THE ENGINEERS WHO BUILT BEIRUT PORT SILOS, GABRIEL ASSIOUN, SAYING: "We started executing (the silos at Beirut port) end of 1968, we started working on the piles. We worked on them at the end of year 1968, we worked on the foundation and the project ended in 1971. Late (former) President Charles Helou inaugurated the project in 1971 and congratulated us one by one." VARIOUS OF ASSIOUN STANDING IN FRONT OF THE NOW-DAMAGED BEIRUT PORT SILOS AND HOLDING LEAFLET SHOWING THE SILOS WHEN THEY WERE FIRST BUILT WITH TITLE READING (French): 'GRAIN SILOS OF BEIRUT PORT' (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ONE OF THE ENGINEERS WHO BUILT BEIRUT PORT SILOS, GABRIEL ASSIOUN, SAYING: "The silos are three synchronised lines. The line from the eastern side is gone, but there are still some two other lines holding up because they were all built together, connected. These cells... There are three types of cells: big cylindrical cells, medium and small ones; all these hold up together because they were built together. These second and third cells protected Beirut because without them, it would have been all gone and Beirut would have been gone. They somehow protected it." ASSIOUN LOOKING THROUGH LEAFLET (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic and French) ONE OF THE ENGINEERS WHO BUILT BEIRUT PORT SILOS, GABRIEL ASSIOUN, SAYING: "I guess, if the foundation is still good... the foundation must now be checked because it was all made of pillars driven into the ground, armed concrete pillars inside the ground... the foundation pillars' length is between 13 and 18 metres." VARIOUS OF ASSIOUN GOING THROUGH PHOTOS IN LEAFLET ASSIOUN POINTING AT TEXT IN LEAFLET FROM THE 1970S READING (French): 'GRAIN SILOS OF BEIRUT PORT WITH CAPACITY OF 105,000 TONNES. THE BIGGEST SILOS IN THE MIDDLE EAST.' (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic and French) ONE OF THE ENGINEERS WHO BUILT BEIRUT PORT SILOS, GABRIEL ASSIOUN, SAYING: "It's heartbreaking. And what is sad is that there are a lot of casualties, and I am sure there are still more casualties under the management office from the sea side which was all blown out. There should be at least 10 to 15 employees under the rubble there." VARIOUS OF ASSIOUN POINTING AT PICTURES IN THE LEAFLET WITH BEIRUT PORT BLAST SITE AND THE NOW-DAMAGED SILOS IN THE BACKGROUND (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic and French) ONE OF THE ENGINEERS WHO BUILT BEIRUT PORT SILOS, GABRIEL ASSIOUN, SAYING: "I am willing to give all the information they want to redo the studies and to rebuild, but I am retired, I can't join the execution, I wish I was 50 years younger, I would have taken care of it again." BEIRUT, LEBANON (AUGUST 13, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXCAVATOR WORKING NEAR DAMAGED SILOS DAMAGED SILOS / DAMAGES IN BEIRUT PORT RESCUE BOAT IN WATER NEAR BEIRUT PORT BLAST SITE SUNSET OVER BEIRUT PORT SILOS AND BLAST SITE
- Embargoed: 29th August 2020 12:41
- Keywords: Beirut silos Gabriel Assioun Lebanon architecture blast engineer security
- Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- City: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001CRD0E2V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Gabriel Assioun helped to build Beirut port's iconic grain silos, now partially destroyed by the enormous explosion which rocked the Mediterranean city on August 4.
Revisiting the site now is a heartbreaking experience for the retired engineer, who said the structure was considered to be the biggest silos in the Middle East.
Assioun, now in his mid-seventies, reminisced about the construction project, which began in 1968 and ended in 1971, as he toured the epicentre of the blast on Friday (August 14).
He believes the concrete silos helped prevent even worse damage to the city by absorbing some of the shock waves from the detonation of more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate which had been unsafely stored nearby for years.
Assioun says the structures' foundations went down to between 13 and 18 metres and he hopes they can be rebuilt.
The blast killed at least 172 people, injured 6,000 others, damaged swathes of the city and left 300,000 homeless.
A Reuters report last week found that the Lebanese government, unlike many wheat import dependent nations, had not kept a strategic stockpile of wheat and all the private stocks of grain held at the Beirut grain silos were destroyed in the blast.
The destruction of the 120,000-tonne capacity structure and of the port, the main entry point for food imports, means buyers will have to rely on smaller private storage facilities for their wheat purchases with no government reserves to fall back on, exacerbating fears of food shortages.
Lebanon, a nation of an estimated six million people, buys almost all of its wheat from abroad.
(Production: Alaa Kanaan, Ayat Basma, Issam Abdallah, Yara Abi Nader) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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