Reuters Sep 03, 2020 •
A view shows the damage at the site of the blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 7, 2020. PHOTO BY HANNAH MCKAY /Reuters
BEIRUT — Lebanese rescue workers detected signs of life on Thursday in the rubble of a building in a residential area of Beirut that had collapsed after a huge Aug. 4 explosion at the nearby port, a rescue worker said.
He was speaking after the state news agency reported a team with a rescue dog had detected movement under a destroyed building in the Gemmayze area of Beirut, one of the worst hit by the blast.
“These (signs of breathing and pulse) along with the temperature sensor means there is a possibility of life,” rescue worker Eddy Bitar told reporters at the scene.
Rescue workers in bright jackets clambered over the building that had collapsed in the blast, which killed about 190 people and injured 6,000 others.
The rescue team were setting up flood lights at the site as the sun set. One rescue worker carried a rescue dog onto the mound of smashed masonry.
Bitar said a civil defense unit had been called in to help with extra equipment to conduct the search.
Local media said any search and rescue effort, if it became clear that someone was still alive, was likely to take hours.
(Reporting by Beirut bureau; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Beirut: Pulse signal prompts search for blast survivor
Rescuers in Beirut have detected signals which could indicate a survivor under the rubble, a month after the massive blast ripped through the city. Even if their hopes are confirmed, the search is expected to take hours.
Beirut officials scrambled Thursday to investigate possible signs of life under the rubble caused by last month's immense port explosion, amid a surge of hope that someone might still be alive after the deadly incident.
Special sensory equipment was brought to the Gemmayze area of the city to investigate reports of a pulse signal, possibly indicating a survivor. A rescue team set up floodlights at the site as the sun set, with one rescue worker carrying a rescue dog onto the pile of debris.
Francesco Lermonda, a Chilean volunteer, said their equipment identifies breathing and heartbeats from humans, not animals. He said it was rare, but not unheard of, for someone to survive in those conditions for a month.
Every few minutes, the Chilean team would ask people surrounding the operation to turn off their cell phones and stay quiet so that it would not interfere with the sounds being detected by their instruments.
"These [signs of breathing and pulse] along with the temperature sensor means there is a possibility of life," said rescue worker Eddy Bitar at the scene.
Reporting from the scene, DW's Razan Salman said people gathered nearby "are waiting impatiently for a glimmer of hope to shimmer from the devastated area."
Read more: Will protests after Beirut blast bring reform to Lebanon?
Youssef Malah, a civil defense worker, said the rescue teams would continue searching throughout the night, but noted that the work was extremely sensitive.
"Ninety-nine percent there isn't anything, but even if there is less than 1% hope, we should keep on looking," Malah told the Associated Press.
Search dog detects possible life in Beirut rubble a month after blast
By Laura Italiano September 3, 2020
The aftermath of the Beirut explosionJoseph Eid/Getty Images
A search-and-rescue dog detected a child’s heartbeat beneath the rubble of Beirut — a month after a massive explosion turned much of the city to ruins.
Rescue teams are gingerly sifting through the collapsed concrete in the upscale East Beirut neighborhood of Gemmayze, according to multiple reports.
“They detected a signal from a potential heartbeat for a second time – they are going in,” tweeted the BBC’s Claiure Reed shortly after noon New York time.
She also tweeted video of workers lowering a rescue worker into the rubble.
A team from Chile had been making the rounds in the neighborhood when their rescue dog alerted at one of the collapsed buildings, Beirut-based journalist Luna Safwan tweeted.
“It seems to be a small kid inside the building,” Chilean rescue worker Eddy Bitar of “Live, Love, Lebanon” told Al Jazeera. “We’ll do whatever it takes,” he said.
“This was an abandoned house but maybe some refugee or some worker was illegally inside,” he said.
The rescue dog — a five-year-old pooch named Flash” — had alerted at the building while walking by on Wednesday evening, he said.
“Yesterday when our dog just smelled that there was something under the debris we make sure in the early morning to bring all the equipment,” he said.
“We found that there was two possible corpse” in the rubble, he said. “One of them might be alive. We’re just making sure no one is in the house,” he said at 1:30 p.m New York time.
Reed said whispers of “Is it true? Could someone be alive??” wafted through a crowd that had gathered there.
Finding someone alive would be a miracle, Liz Sly, the bureau chief there for the Washington Post, tweeted Thursday.
“Rescue teams are digging. Let there be a miracle.”
Gemmayze is just a few blocks from the port where the Aug. 4 explosion at a chemicals storage warehouse killed 181 people.
BEIRUT — Lebanese rescue workers detected signs of life on Thursday in the rubble of a building in a residential area of Beirut that had collapsed after a huge Aug. 4 explosion at the nearby port, a rescue worker said.
He was speaking after the state news agency reported a team with a rescue dog had detected movement under a destroyed building in the Gemmayze area of Beirut, one of the worst hit by the blast.
“These (signs of breathing and pulse) along with the temperature sensor means there is a possibility of life,” rescue worker Eddy Bitar told reporters at the scene.
Rescue workers in bright jackets clambered over the building that had collapsed in the blast, which killed about 190 people and injured 6,000 others.
The rescue team were setting up flood lights at the site as the sun set. One rescue worker carried a rescue dog onto the mound of smashed masonry.
Bitar said a civil defense unit had been called in to help with extra equipment to conduct the search.
Local media said any search and rescue effort, if it became clear that someone was still alive, was likely to take hours.
(Reporting by Beirut bureau; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Beirut: Pulse signal prompts search for blast survivor
Rescuers in Beirut have detected signals which could indicate a survivor under the rubble, a month after the massive blast ripped through the city. Even if their hopes are confirmed, the search is expected to take hours.
Beirut officials scrambled Thursday to investigate possible signs of life under the rubble caused by last month's immense port explosion, amid a surge of hope that someone might still be alive after the deadly incident.
Special sensory equipment was brought to the Gemmayze area of the city to investigate reports of a pulse signal, possibly indicating a survivor. A rescue team set up floodlights at the site as the sun set, with one rescue worker carrying a rescue dog onto the pile of debris.
Francesco Lermonda, a Chilean volunteer, said their equipment identifies breathing and heartbeats from humans, not animals. He said it was rare, but not unheard of, for someone to survive in those conditions for a month.
Every few minutes, the Chilean team would ask people surrounding the operation to turn off their cell phones and stay quiet so that it would not interfere with the sounds being detected by their instruments.
"These [signs of breathing and pulse] along with the temperature sensor means there is a possibility of life," said rescue worker Eddy Bitar at the scene.
Reporting from the scene, DW's Razan Salman said people gathered nearby "are waiting impatiently for a glimmer of hope to shimmer from the devastated area."
Read more: Will protests after Beirut blast bring reform to Lebanon?
Youssef Malah, a civil defense worker, said the rescue teams would continue searching throughout the night, but noted that the work was extremely sensitive.
"Ninety-nine percent there isn't anything, but even if there is less than 1% hope, we should keep on looking," Malah told the Associated Press.
Search dog detects possible life in Beirut rubble a month after blast
By Laura Italiano September 3, 2020
The aftermath of the Beirut explosionJoseph Eid/Getty Images
A search-and-rescue dog detected a child’s heartbeat beneath the rubble of Beirut — a month after a massive explosion turned much of the city to ruins.
Rescue teams are gingerly sifting through the collapsed concrete in the upscale East Beirut neighborhood of Gemmayze, according to multiple reports.
“They detected a signal from a potential heartbeat for a second time – they are going in,” tweeted the BBC’s Claiure Reed shortly after noon New York time.
She also tweeted video of workers lowering a rescue worker into the rubble.
A team from Chile had been making the rounds in the neighborhood when their rescue dog alerted at one of the collapsed buildings, Beirut-based journalist Luna Safwan tweeted.
“It seems to be a small kid inside the building,” Chilean rescue worker Eddy Bitar of “Live, Love, Lebanon” told Al Jazeera. “We’ll do whatever it takes,” he said.
“This was an abandoned house but maybe some refugee or some worker was illegally inside,” he said.
The rescue dog — a five-year-old pooch named Flash” — had alerted at the building while walking by on Wednesday evening, he said.
“Yesterday when our dog just smelled that there was something under the debris we make sure in the early morning to bring all the equipment,” he said.
“We found that there was two possible corpse” in the rubble, he said. “One of them might be alive. We’re just making sure no one is in the house,” he said at 1:30 p.m New York time.
Reed said whispers of “Is it true? Could someone be alive??” wafted through a crowd that had gathered there.
Finding someone alive would be a miracle, Liz Sly, the bureau chief there for the Washington Post, tweeted Thursday.
“Rescue teams are digging. Let there be a miracle.”
Gemmayze is just a few blocks from the port where the Aug. 4 explosion at a chemicals storage warehouse killed 181 people.
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