A WOMAN has spoken of the heart-wrenching moment she heard her home was destroyed in the vast explosion that has rocked Beirut.
The blast in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday killed at least 137 people and wounded more than 5,000 others.
The doors and windows of Pamela Hajal’s home were blown apart and she was desperate to know if her family and friends had survived.
Her 72-year-old father stood in tears amid the wreckage.
“He was crying, but he didn’t want us to worry,” Pamela said.
Her home in Beirut looks over the port where the blast originated.
“I will never return and see the same view again,” she said.
The entire city shook when a warehouse stocked with 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in a huge mushroom cloud. Buildings were razed, widows smashed and homes flattened.
Pamela has friends who are still missing. “They’re searching for their bodies,” she said.
She is a student at the University of Sussex and was asleep in Brighton when her sister told her the news on Tuesday night.
“She called me and said ‘I don’t want to scare you, and nobody from our family is hurt, but there’s something you need to know’.”
The explosion was the most powerful ever seen in the city, which was on the front lines of the 1975-1990 civil war and has endured conflicts with neighbouring Israel, as well as bombings and terror attacks.
Pamela, 35, said: “This isn’t the first time the windows at my house have been blown out. It’s happened before, when Israel attacked Beirut. But the damage has never been as massive as it is now.
“I lived through the civil war and I’ve survived everything. Never in my life did I imagine I would see my capital collapse in minutes.”
The air was still thick with smoke long after the explosion. Ammonium nitrate can release toxic fumes, and Pamela’s father has left for the cool air of the mountains behind Beirut.
Her friends have been wiping black dust from their houses.
By the port, hospitals have been overwhelmed as the injured are treated.
Hossein Cheaito, 24, is a student from Beirut on a scholarship at the University of Sussex.
He showed The Argus footage of doctors at The Saint George hospital in the Geitawi neighbourhood treating patients in a car park.
“The power is gone and they’ve had to use light from their phone screens to carry out surgery,” he said.
Hossein’s house is still intact, but people nearby have lost their homes.
He woke in his student accommodation in Brighton to a message from his brother saying: “We’re alive, don’t worry.”
For a heart-stopping half hour, Hossein’s family lost touch with his sister – but now they are all safe.
“It’s just been traumatising,” he said. “I want to go home to Beirut, but I can’t. I’m constantly worried.
“I don’t know what Lebanon is going to look like when I return.”
Both students – along with many people in Lebanon – share a stinging sense of injustice.
They are enraged the government could have left such a large quantity of explosive material so close to the heart of the city.
But Hossein said people in Lebanon have come to expect negligence from their government.
He spoke of the demonstrations in October 2019, when people took to the streets in protest at government corruption and its handling of the country’s economic crisis.
I was reporting for The Argus from Beirut and Tripoli as those protests broke out.
Even then, people were furious. With a fresh tax set to be imposed, the burden was too much – the demonstrators didn’t know how they would be able to survive.
Even then, they were chanting “thawra” [revolution] and “down with the government”.
Now, Pamela and Hossein predict people will return to the streets.
Pamela said: “It was already overwhelming. Our country was facing economic collapse. It’s just too much to handle at one time.
“I’m expecting a war on the streets with all the political tension.”
Hossein said: “Dangerous material was stored in this warehouse for years and the government did nothing about it.
“Many people are now below the poverty line. People are starving.
“All we’re asking is for the government not to kill its own people.
“People in Lebanon will take to the streets and make sure this government resigns.”
You can donate to the Lebanese Red Cross here.
If you or your family were affected by the explosion in Beirut, you can email laurie.churchman@theargus.co.uk with your story.
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