{"id":24249,"date":"2018-12-04T08:24:18","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T08:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24249"},"modified":"2018-12-04T08:24:18","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T08:24:18","slug":"two-syrians-dead-in-lebanon-refugee-camp-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24249","title":{"rendered":"Two Syrians dead in Lebanon refugee camp fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nYAMMOUNEH, Lebanon: A fire ripped through a refugee camp in Lebanon on Monday killing two Syrians, including a boy, and burning nearly two dozen tents, a local official said.<\/p>\n

\nAround 1.5 million Syrians have sought shelter in Lebanon from the seven-year civil war raging next door, with many living in camps in the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country.<\/p>\n

\nThe fire in the northeastern town of Yammouneh early Monday \u201ckilled a 46-year-old man as well as a boy aged seven or eight,\u201d said Deputy Mayor Hussein Shreif.<\/p>\n

\nIt \u201cburnt down 23 of 70 tents in the camp,\u201d he said, adding it was not immediately clear what started the fire. But after the initial spark, \u201cthe explosion of a fuel container in one of the tents caused the fire to spread,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nSecurity forces and a UN team were dispatched to the area of the camp, he said.<\/p>\n

\nOne of the refugees said: \u201cAt 3 a.m., we heard screaming. Then we saw flames (spreading) and we couldn\u2019t put them out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAn AFP photographer saw people milling amid the cinders of former tents, nothing remaining of them but a few metal poles.<\/p>\n

\nNear a field of red earth, a young girl in a green hoodie picked through a pile of clothes that had survived the fire.<\/p>\n

\nLebanon\u2019s national news agency, NNA, said \u201ccivil defense put out the fire with difficulty due to the low visibility, thick fog and smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nFires have often erupted in Syrian refugee camps, where many depend on international aid for their survival.<\/p>\n

\nSecurity forces also regularly sweep down on the informal settlements.<\/p>\n

\nOn Wednesday, further to the east in the area of Arsal, the army detained hundreds of Syrians, including over no or expired identity documents.<\/p>\n

\nSince the start of the year, thousands of Syrians have gone home to their country, according to an AFP tally, in returns coordinated between the authorities in Beirut and Damascus.<\/p>\n

\nLebanese authorities waive late fines for those whose residency papers have expired if they agree to return to Syria.<\/p>\n

\nThe Syrian conflict has killed more than 360,000 people and forced millions from their homes since it started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YAMMOUNEH, Lebanon: A fire ripped through a refugee camp in Lebanon on Monday killing two Syrians, including a boy, and burning nearly two dozen tents, a local official said. Around 1.5 million Syrians have sought shelter in Lebanon from the seven-year civil war raging next door, with many living in camps in the Bekaa Valley…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":24250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}