BEIRUT: Up to seven people were killed and 14 injured when a fuel tank explosion ripped through a Beirut gas station Monday evening. The blast, which jolted Beirutis who for a few minutes feared it was a bomb attack, caused extensive material damage to the station and surrounding buildings.
Among the dead in the blast, which occurred on a main road in the Adlieh neighborhood, were the owner of the Wardieh petrol station Joseph Abi Nasr, and an Egyptian employee, security sources said. Of those injured, two remained in a critical condition Monday night.
Ambulances and fire engines were scrambled to the scene as security forces struggled to maintain a safety cordon around the blast site.
A Red Cross official said it had sent six ambulances to the destroyed station, with Civil Defense forces contributing several more.
“We don’t know the cause of the explosion but we have so far taken 15 people away from the scene,” the official said, adding that four people had died.
The NNA reported that the explosion had left seven dead.
The blast razed several walls and blew out windows of the station, as well destroying several cars and a minibus parked at the pumps. The station roof was collapsed, the blast having contorted the aluminum canopy earthward.
Twisted metal and concrete scattered the forecourt around an upside-down red hatchback, overturned by the sheer force of the explosion.
Debris and broken glass was strewn across both sides of the duel carriageway and bystanders spoke of the explosion rattling windows in apartments several blocks away.
Hadi Abou al-Ezz, 28, had just parked his silver BMW car next to a gas pump when the blast happened.
“I gave the station worker my money. Five seconds later I heard a boom and saw a white flash. It threw me out of my car. I got thrown through the window. I looked back and saw a huge mess,” he told The Daily Star. “I saw people on the ground. Some of them were without clothes. Some were on fire. There was blood.”
Several bystanders clashed with security forces, which swiftly imposed a no-entry zone around the gas station.
A bulldozer was sent in clear debris and allow medical and fire crews access to survivors as Internal Security Officers implored a crowd of onlookers to refrain from smoking near the station.
One man with scratches on his face looked dazed as he was tended to by medical staff. A worker at the gas station, sitting in the back of an ambulance, said he was a less than 60 minutes into his 12 hour shift when the explosion occurred.
“My brother is in the hospital. I don’t know what happened to him,” he said as a medical worker administered a saline drip. “Everything was going as normal. I was working and I usually work on the tanks, but today I was [fixing] a car. We fill up the tanks and this one had been closed for three months. Today we started working on it in order to fix it. We worked for an hour and the workers who were there left. Then the explosion happened. I don’t know why.”
Although there was no evidence of an attack on the station, security forces combed the adjacent area with torches as others interviewed eyewitnesses.
Caretaker Transport and Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi and Metn MP Sami Gemayel both visited the gasoline station to inspect the damage.
Abou al-Ezz said that he was lucky to be alive.
“I’m fine, but not feeling so good. I am in shock but I am OK,” he said. “I saw the others … they aren’t fine.”