A chemical expert: Beirut avoided a second chemical explosion by chance

A Ship is getting ready on Friday to ferry containers of hazardous materials from the Beirut port to Germany.

Heiko Felderhoff, CEO of Combi Lift, the German company that was entrusted with clearing the port of the hazardous materials following the explosion, said that the containers will be disposed of in Germany.

“The ship I now docked here and will leave to Germany on the weekend,” he added.

This as head of the Lebanese-German Business Council Elias Aswad said that the company “removed all toxic, cancerous, flammable and highly reactive chemicals that have been stored here for decades".

He also noted that the company was originally tasked with treating 49 containers of hazardous materials only, adding however that  it ended up with treating more than 75containers, with 59 of them will be shipped.

“15 containers will be disposed of a "in a safe and environmentally friendly way,” he added without giving any details.

In this context, a chemical expert managing the operation told AFP in February that Beirut avoided a second chemical explosion by chance.

Michael Wentler said he had "never seen a situation like this before" in his entire life, in the course of describing the mixture of chemical substances that caused holes in shipping containers.

He stressed that Hydrochloric acid is a corrosive and toxic substance and formed 60 percent of the chemicals that Combi Lift treated.