Front Burner - The aftermath of the Beirut explosion

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

The explosion near Beirut’s port on Tuesday killed 135 people and injured thousands more, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Officials say 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was the cause. According to public records, the chemicals were held at the port for six years, despite warnings about the danger they posed. Today on Front Burner, we get a first-hand account of the explosion and aftermath from Hanna Anbar of Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper, and discuss the challenge of rebuilding in a country already deep in economic crisis.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. This is from a video of a pillar of smoke streaming into the sky in Beirut, Lebanon. It's already a terrifying sight, with over a million people within just a few miles of this port. But then, it gets much worse. Oh my God!

What? You're burning oil! What? A cloud of crimson and fiery orange explodes out of the smoke. What? What happened to you? What happened to you? What happened to you? In an instant, Beirut's waterfront neighborhood,

normally teeming with restaurants and bars, pretty much disappears. And the girl in this video screams, I don't want to die. Officials say over 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate caused Tuesday's explosion. The port held it for six years after its removal from a cargo ship,

despite warnings. And now at least 135 people are dead, around 5,000 injured, and some 300,000 have been forced out of their homes. Today I'm talking with Hanna Anbar of Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper. He'll tell us what it's like to be in Lebanon right now and help us understand the complexities of this tragedy.

I'm Josh Bloch. This is FrontBurner. Mr. Anbar, how are you doing today? My day started by going back to look at our offices because our offices were destroyed. My office was destroyed. On top of me, I don't know how I survived. And it's a glass room because I overlooked the newsroom, which is know an open space but mine was totally glass and that was totally shattered and the false ceiling fell on top of me and I survived without any scratch although our offices were destroyed but it is at least nobody was hurt.

And this is a blessing when we look at the buildings next to us that were, you know, totally destroyed or half of them destroyed. And they have casualties in hospitals. And that is that is the tragedy of things. Other angles show the blast wave crumbling buildings like sandcastles. Traveling faster than the speed of sound, people couldn't get out of the way of the blast. You know, we saw the horrible images and the videos of the explosion in Beirut's port. And we could hear the terror and the panic in people's voices. Within seconds, it felt like an earthquake. The whole building shook.

And then the blast happened. My body was thrown and I felt breathless. It really felt like nothing I've ever experienced before, to the point where you basically felt almost like death. It was just horrible. Can you tell me more about what did you hear and see when that blast happened? Everybody was shocked because it's been a very long time that we have had explosions, but never as strong as this explosion. It was really, really something very strong.

Everything in the neighborhood closer to the port is basically flattened. You saw buildings that just basically didn't exist anymore. The highway leading from the north towards the capital was basically a blanket of shattered glass and rubble. Tractors were trying to clear the rubble so that the cars could go by and the ambulances were trying to rush to the scene through very, very heavy traffic. When you walked around the streets today, can you tell me, what did you see?

Well, today was a day of reckoning. People were just still in awe. They are very thankful that they're still alive. I see people cursing the government. I saw people complaining, not knowing what to do. I saw people who looked, you know, just with this gaze of, like you only see in the cinema, like this is the end of the world. In some areas, in the downtown luxury areas, all you see is shattered windows. You see their furniture is on the side of the road.

Their furniture is on the side of the road. And the owners or the people who work there are just standing and they look like it's the day after the end of the world. And you can understand because these people will not have a job tomorrow. But at the same time there were you know the the area that was struck as a very small community and everybody has a friend or has a relative so people really most of the time were on the phone or going to hospitals or checking on their friends or their relatives. He's 29 years old. From 7 o'clock in the evening, we've been all over every hospital in Beirut

and we are now waiting for the names to come out. And nothing has come out. We don't know if he's dead or alive. We just don't know. So it was that kind of day. It was a sad day. People were busy with the human side of life. I've seen these pictures of just entire neighborhoods in Beirut that are completely flattened. The force of the explosion was so great it flipped cars onto their sides

and could reportedly be felt as far away as Cyprus, some 250 kilometers away. And I know a lot of people have lost their homes. Some 300,000 people now are out of their homes. Tell me, where can they go? What are you hearing about what people are doing right now? Well, hotels in the suburbs have opened their doors for them. Convents have opened all the convents for them. Lots of people go to relatives or friends.

And the Ministry of Education has made every school available for people who want to go and stay there until they find something. So it is very sad. But people will not, we will have shelter. People in Lebanon, let me just make this statement very clear, under duress become so friendly, become very warm, and they treat each other as a family regardless of who you are and what you are and for where you are. People are helping others, taking people from rubbles, helping people. Also distributing

water and essentials that people need. I have seen reports about the remarkable ways that residents of Beirut have also in this difficult time really been reaching out to one another. This is a trait of this nation. This is a trait of this nation. In times of trouble, in times where your neighbor is in real trouble or his house is destroyed or one of his family is dead, everybody around him, and they're not necessarily relatives, will make things as easy as possible for them.

People go and cook for them. People go and stay with them and talk to them. They can offer them a room in their house. This has really is not a new thing in this country. That has happened in the war before, in the civil war. It has happened today again in the streets that I walked in. I saw people doing that. People hugging each other, people asking each other questions, people who don't know each other. And this human side is very touching. I also know that there's about 5,000 people who have been injured, and many of them quite severely. I know Lebanon's hospitals are already grappling with coronavirus.

Beirut's hospitals were overwhelmed by casualties in need of urgent treatment. Every one of our crew, doctors and nurses are operating. Even administration, everyone is working. Can you tell me a little bit about the scene right now at Beirut's emergency rooms? I think, of course, as you know, the hospitals were overcrowded with corona cases. But the emergency sections of all hospitals all over Lebanon have really opened up to the wounded. And in some hospitals, you know, they were so overcrowded, there were no more space. Some are turning patients away, others treating them in parking lots. But two or three of the hospitals have been also affected by the explosion because they are near the port.

Right. I saw that the New York Times was reporting it might, in fact, be as many as four hospitals that were too damaged to take new patients. We're hearing about multiple hospitals that are completely out of commission because of the destruction. Roughly half of the country lives below the poverty line. People can't afford to go to private hospitals. And now you have hospitals that have been destroyed. Some of them were moved to other hospitals. But I think under the circumstances, the medical teams have done a wonderful job.

On top of like, for example, during the past 48 hours, we have more than 350 cases of corona. On top of all that. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix.

I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples,

I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse in Beirut's port. The Lebanese prime minister said it was a horrific chemical explosion, suggesting an act of negligence, not terrorism or malice. That 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, commonly used in in fertilizer was stored at the port without proper precautions. The chemical is highly explosive, and that's got a lot of people asking pretty much the same question. You know, why was vast amounts, close to 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in downtown Beirut? It was a, you know, tragedy waiting to happen. And, you know, the people responsible for making that decision or not

solving this problem a lot earlier are precisely the Lebanese ruling class that are going to face demands for accountability from the citizens of Lebanon very soon. Part of the answer has to do with a Russian-owned cargo ship that arrived at the port in 2013. Financial and technical problems stranded the ship, and port authorities took the ammonium nitrate ashore. It then sat in that warehouse for six years. Even the prime minister was outraged. Those responsible will pay the price for what happened.

This is a promise to the martyrs and to the wounded. This is a national commitment. The facts will be revealed about this dangerous warehouse that has been there since 2014. It's not like authorities didn't know about the chemicals. Public records show that customs officials sent letters at least six times over the years. They asked the courts for guidance on how to dispose of the ammonium nitrate and warned about how dangerous it was. Investigators are now looking into negligence and the government is ordering house arrest for some port officials. Beirut's port is notorious for corruption, but Lebanon's economy minister told CBC that's not what caused this. We have a lot of corruption, but in this case, it's not corruption that played a role.

It is certainly incompetence. It is certainly, as well, people not understanding and assessing the risks. It is bureaucracy and, frankly, in my opinion, stupid behaviors and decisions. There's still a lot of questions about what happened. And so I asked Hannah Anbar about how people in Beirut are reacting to the revelation so far. People in Beirut at the moment really are in the process of survival. They're very angry, of course.

You have to take into consideration because there's the devaluation of our currency. into consideration because there's the devaluation of our currency. We get now, compared to the dollar, 10% of what we got last month or the month before. So people are getting 10%, and that 10% is gone because the prices on the other side have gone up because of the dollar. So between that and the loss on the devaluation, you really end up with paper money that has no value whatsoever. So people have, you know, when you have survival, you know, we don't have electricity, we don't have water, we have to buy water.

You leave a small margin for real protests. This government was installed by other parties and there was a revolution and we felt hope. And that was really shattered. And it really affected our psyche. It really affected our hearts. And we really picked ourselves up. And then you had the pandemic. There's this sense of loss, this sense of grief, this sense of helplessness. Well, I saw that Save the Children warned last month that almost a million people in Beirut are struggling to buy essentials, including food. What do you think the explosion does, you know,

to Lebanese people's ability to just try and get the basic needs at this point? It's going near impossible. You know, until further notice, we are going to rely on foreign aid wherever it comes from, because the other ports in Lebanon are not equipped to take on all, for example, they don't have granaries, they don't have the wheat silos. Our port took thousands of containers every month. Our medicine, our food, I mean, we import everything. We have nothing. So if that is now upset and there's a shortage of that, it is going to affect prices, of course. The living standards have already been smashed, but it's going to affect prices, of course. The living standards have already been smashed, but it's

going to affect us more. We need to see how much this is going to affect our food. We are not now, at the moment, we are not aiming for anything except to get survive and food for us and for our children. Of course, another major challenge is rebuilding the incredible amount of damage that has been done to the infrastructure in Beirut. And I know that that has already been a challenge to try and rebuild the city from the civil war. How difficult will it be to try and rebuild Beirut from this unprecedented destruction? Near impossible. Beirut, it is very difficult to have another Beirut. Not in the next 10 years the way I see it.

And that is a great loss. I mean, the attraction of Beirut will go. I mean, the attraction of Beirut will go. We have nothing else to offer our tourists except a good nightlife, a good life, good hotels, good restaurants, you know, people who love life. Why would somebody in Kuwait or in Dubai come and spend money here? In the coming days, you know, as people start to put glass back onto their windows and to find homes, to find food again, that some of these bigger questions will start to be tackled. Where will you be directing your attention in the coming days? Let me just say this. What you have today is a survival mood. A survival mood. A survival mood.

We are not thinking what is going, not me and other people, are not thinking of what is happening next week. What they want, let me have shelter this week and let me think about what is going to happen later. Otherwise they will go crazy. They have to go day by day. It's very stressful and very frustrating. People can say that Lebanese are resilient, but our resilience is really wearing thin these days because it's just one

thing after another. I mean, there is no accountability in Lebanon. There's no transparency in Lebanon. There's no justice in Lebanon. It's really not much of a state. We'll call it a failed state, but I don't really call it much of a state at all. I mean, it's kind of just like hanging on by a thread. We're just kind of living on luck. And anything can go wrong at any time. months, I will tell you there's going to be more frustration, more stress, and more skepticism against our government. That I can promise you. We are really reached the end. I don't know how we're going to get out of this. Well, Hanna, thank you so much for speaking with me today. And I do wish you all the best and do stay safe. Thank you very much. Several countries have pledged aid in the aftermath of the blast in Beirut. The European Union is sending emergency workers and equipment from across its 27 countries. And Canada promised an initial contribution of $5 million,

which will go to humanitarian groups like the Red Cross. That's all for today. Thanks for listening to Frontburner. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.