BBC OS Conversations: After the Beirut explosion
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2020
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Beirut has been left destroyed by this week’s massive explosion: more than a hundred are dead; thousands injured and hundreds of thousands have been left homeless. It has devastated lives, belongings, buildings, businesses. Lebanon was already struggling from challenges on several fronts, including Covid-19. With many questions still to be answered, it is unclear what the longer term effect of this week’s tragedy will be. Nuala McGovern talks to people in Beirut. She hears from eye witnesses who experienced the blast, three young adults who share their fears for the future of Lebanon, and the doctor who helped a mother give birth after the hospital was badly hit by the blast.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello I'm Nulam McGovran and we're bringing you BBC OS conversations after the Beirut explosion here on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:18.0 | As Lebanon deals with the shock and destruction of downtown Beirut, residents and medical professionals share their experiences, |
| 0:22.0 | including the doctor who continued helping a woman give birth |
| 0:25.4 | after the hospital was hit directly by the blast. |
| 0:29.0 | Suddenly the electricity cut out, everyone with whatever was left with their batteries on their phones had |
| 0:34.7 | their flashlights on and yeah we ended up welcoming baby George into quite a crazy world. |
| 0:48.0 | It began with a fire at a warehouse in Beirut's port. Then there was an explosion. |
| 0:50.0 | Unfortunately for a country that has been in conflict for decades many of its residents had seen or heard similar explosions before |
| 0:58.0 | but the next blast was on a different scale altogether. When the huge bloom of orange smoke disappeared, the destruction was widespread. It was caused, |
| 1:15.0 | according to the authorities, by close to 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate. This |
| 1:21.8 | natural crystal-like compound is used as a fertilizer, but it's also a key component of explosives. |
| 1:28.0 | Impounded from a ship in 2013, it had been stored in another warehouse nearby. As a result, more than 100 people are now |
| 1:37.0 | dead, thousands are injured and hundreds of thousands are homeless, as well as the billions of dollars of damage. |
| 1:46.4 | Here's how three people living in Beirut and the surrounding area experienced the explosions. |
| 1:52.4 | They are Pascal, Romy, and first Hadid Masrala, who was driving a |
| 1:58.7 | taxi close to where the blast occurred. I saw the fire but I didn't yet knew there was going to be an explosion. |
| 2:05.8 | We went inside. Suddenly I lost my hearing. Apparently I was too close. So I lost my hearing for a few seconds. |
| 2:12.3 | I knew something was wrong and then suddenly that should. So I lost my hearing for a few seconds. |
| 2:12.5 | I knew something was wrong. |
| 2:14.1 | And then suddenly the glass just shattered all over the car, |
| 2:16.8 | the cars around us, the shops, the stores, the buildings, |
| 2:19.5 | just glass going down from all over the buildings. |
... |
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