The latest information, as of Friday, Aug. 7, indicates that the Aug. 4 explosion at a warehouse at the Beirut port killed at least 150 people, injured thousands more and “caused destruction across half the city,” according to a report by NPR. And despite initial fears and rumors that the blast was some sort of terrorist attacks, all indications at this point are that it was an accident, “possibly the outcome of neglect on a massive scale,” NPR adds.
The blast happened when an accidental fire in another warehouse at the port reached the warehouse where 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was store. The ammonium nitrated was confiscated in 2013 from a Russian ship owned by a company that couldn’t page port fees and left there unsecured ever since, according to NPR.
BBC.com reports that the fire started Warehouse 12, and when the roof of Warehouse 12 caught fire around 6 p.m. Beirut time, “there was a large initial explosion, followed by a series of of smaller blasts that some witnesses said sounded like fireworks going off. About 30 seconds later, there was a colossal explosion that sent a mushroom cloud into the air and a supersonic blastwave radiating through the city,” killing and injury so many people that the city’s hospitals were “quickly overwhelmed.”
The explosion leveled buildings near the port and “caused extensive damage over much of the rest of the city of about 2 million, and Neirut Gov. Marwan Abboud told BCC that as many as 300,000 people were left at least temporarily homeless and that collective losses might reach $10-15 billion.
As the debate continues over who was responsible for the devastating explosion and what it means for a city that has been struggling to overcome near constant conflict, relief organizations around the world have rushed to provide the immediate aid that the people of Beirut need. Here in Dallas, the Dallas Peace and Justice Center is working with KinderUSA, an American Muslim organization focused on the health and well-being of Palestinian children, to fill immediate needs for emergency responders on the ground there who are using their medical teams, ambulances, and hospitals to help treat the wounded. Immediate needs, according to staff on the ground include oxygen masks, intravenous fluids, bandages, suture materials, disinfectants, and more, DP&J noted.
KinderUSA is partnering with MAP UK, a UK-based charity focused on health for Palestinians, and the Palestine Red Crescent, which is part of the international Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. You can donate to their efforts here.
UK newspaper The Guardian offered this list of agencies accepting donations for disaster relief in Beirut:
• The Lebanese Red Cross
There are other agencies, too. If none of these fits what you are looking for, just google aid for Beirut and find one that does.
— Tammye Nash
