BEIRUT (Reuters) -Firefighters put out a blaze that raged for several hours at a gasoline storage tank in southern Lebanon on Monday, the latest blow to a nation grappling with crippling economic and fuel crises. There were no reports of casualties in the fire at the Zahrani oil facility on the Mediterranean coast, which had sent a huge column of smoke into the sky. Energy minister Walid Fayad said the fire resulted from a “mistake” while gasoline was being transported from one storage tank to another, the National News Agency (NNA) reported. The army had diverted traffic away from the facility in a sparsely-populated area, the security source said. Lebanese have had to increasingly rely on private generators for power, with expensive fuel oil bills, as the state electricity company provided a few if any hours of service a day to their districts.

Source: MetroXpress October 11, 2021 08:48 UTC