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Beirut: Rescuers digging through the rubble of a dilapidated building in Beirut said for the third day on Saturday that there was no longer any hope of finding survivors more than a month after the massive explosion at the port.
Some 50 workers and volunteers, including a specialized team from Chile, worked for three days to locate anyone alive in the rubble after sensors detected signs of breathing and heat on Thursday.
“Technically speaking, there are no signs of life,” Francesco Lermanda, head of the voluntary rescue group (Tobos Chile), said at a news conference on Saturday night. He added that rescuers planed 95 percent of the building.
He added that the signs of life that were detected during the last two days were the breathing of other rescuers who were inside the building and that was detected by the sensors. He said efforts now will focus on removing debris and finding remains.
“We never stop even if the hope level is 1 percent,” Lermanta said. “We never stop until the job is done,” he said.
The explosion in the port of Beirut on August 4 killed about 190 people, injured 6,000 and destroyed entire neighborhoods. The authorities held ceremonies on Friday to commemorate the first month of the explosion that devastated the city already under the weight of a severe economic crisis.
Rescue efforts dominated local media and social media channels, with the Lebanese hoping for a miracle, but it didn’t happen.
The dilapidated building, which is being searched among the rubble, is located between the Gemayzeh neighborhood and the Mar Mikhael neighborhood, which are two of the neighborhoods most affected by the explosion and contain many old buildings that collapsed from the force of the earthquake. .
Work is progressing slowly as the building is about to completely collapse, rescuers say.
“There is great danger to the team,” said George Abu Musa, director of civil defense operations. “The building is very run down.”
Rescuers searched the debris with their hands and shovels, while automatic excavators and a crane removed the heavy packages. A scan of the ruined building was performed with high precision lasers. (Reuters)
