Contract photographer
A helicopter dumps water to extinguish the fire burning at the grain silo at the port in Beirut, Lebanon on July 16, 2022. Previous reports said the silos were secretly being destroyed, but the reports were denied by the port's director general, Omar Itani, according to L'Orient Today. A previous report said grain fermentation is the cause of the fires. The silos were destroyed Aug. 4, 2020 when more than 2,500 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded, which killed at least 200 people and injured thousands, next near the silos. The government decided in April it would demolish the silos, despite calls to preserve them as a memorial site.