LBCI taps into details of Beit Misk explosion

A Ukrainian national did not expect the joy of her and her eight-year-old son moving to a new house in one of the residential projects in Beit Misk would turn into hell.

At 10:00 AM on Friday, a large explosion sounded in their apartment on the first floor, accompanied by thick smoke and flames, resulting in significant material damage to the house and its surroundings.

Immediately, the Civil Defense rushed to the scene and put out the fire. The Red Cross also transferred the mother and her son to Sarhal Hospital for treatment, as they suffered severe burns that exceeded 50 percent. Five Syrian workers were also treated in the field for suffocation.

Until now, the real reason behind this explosion has not been known, pending the issuance of the result of the official investigations carried out by several judicial and security agencies.

But several hypotheses are put forward.

The head of the Gas Distributors Syndicate, Jean Hatem, delegated from the Ministry of Energy to inspect the place, says the explosion is likely due to a gas leak in the house. 

The project management provides gas directly from a central network that connects the main gas tank to the homes. It also turned out that the amount used in the house in two days was 180 liters of gas, approximately equal to 7 canisters. It is an irrational amount of use, so the leakage hypothesis is legitimate; second: the first spark of the fire and the explosion storm came from the kitchen.

However, the project management sources deny that the cause of the explosion was a gas leak because it was not found that the gas network was damaged, whether in the house or throughout the project, confirming that it maintains this network periodically.

Management added according to a preliminary report, it appears that the fire was caused due to a defect in an electrical appliance in the house, but all of this remains under investigation.

Ending this dispute awaits the results of the final investigations, expected to be issued in the next few days, after hearing from the owner of the house, whom Bikfaya's Internal Security Forces could not listen to because of her health condition.