On July 31 and August 4, other grain silo towers collapsed after a fire broke out earlier in the month.
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A cloud of smoke. The last part of the northern block of grain silos in the port of Beirut collapsed on Tuesday August 23, two years after being damaged by the blast of the devastating explosion of August 4, 2020 which killed more than 200 people and injured 6,500 and devastated entire neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital. These towers were the last of the northern block of silos. For now, the remaining towers in the southern block are stable, according to French civil engineer Emmanuel Durand, who has installed sensors inside the silos. In total, there were 48 silos. Today, only twelve are still standing.
Before this new collapse, relatives of victims had called for a sit-in at the port, scheduled for late Tuesday afternoon. “We hold the authorities responsible” of the collapse of the silos, told AFP Mariana Fodoulian, who lost her sister in the explosion. “We must protect the southern part and the whole site (…)”as a place in memory of the victims, she added.
On July 31 and August 4, other towers collapsed after a fire broke out in early July in the most damaged part of the silos, caused according to authorities and experts by the fermentation of stocks of remaining cereals, combined with high temperatures. Since then, several towers have remained in flames.
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In April, the authorities had ordered the demolition of the silos, but the decision was suspended due to the opposition of the relatives of the victims of the tragedy who want to make it a place of memory. Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamie had claimed that 25,000 square meters of the capital’s port would be devoted to the construction of new silos, adding that funding would come from international donors and his ministry.