59 Containers of Highly Dangerous Substances Removed from Beirut Port

Fifty-nine containers of highly dangerous substances were cleared Wednesday from the disaster-hit Beirut port, nine months after the explosion of hundreds of tons of poorly stored ammonium nitrate at the facility caused a deadly and unprecedented peacetime catastrophe in Lebanon.

“Following a strenuous follow-up by caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab for more than eight months, fifty-nine containers of highly dangerous substances found at Beirut port and other places after the Aug. 4 blast disaster were exported today,” the Premiership said in a statement.

“German firm Combi Lift worked on sealing these containers in a safe manner over the past months, in line with the contract signed with the company to remove this danger from Lebanon,” the statement added.

Germany's ambassador to Lebanon, Andreas Kindl, said the ship carrying the material has left and will arrive in the German town of Wilhelmshaven in about 10 days.

"It will take weeks to destroy the chemicals that have been in the Port of Beirut for decades," Kindl tweeted.

The last of the 59 containers was lifted onto the ship on Friday.

Heiko Felderhoff, CEO of Combi Lift, said they would be disposed of in Germany.

Elias Assouad, the head of the Lebanese-German Business Council, said the project had cleared the port of "all toxic, cancerous, flammable and highly reactive chemicals that have been stored here for decades."

The German firm had been expected "to deal with only 49 containers of hazardous material," he said.

But they ended up "handling more than 75, of which 59 will be shipped."

He said 15 others would be "disposed of within safe and environmentally sound procedures in situ," without providing more details.

A chemical expert managing the operation told AFP after finishing the job in February that Beirut only avoided a second chemical inferno by chance.

Michael Wentler said he had "never seen a situation like this before" in his life, describing festering chemical mixtures so corrosive they burned gaping holes right through massive shipping containers.

Hydrochloric acid, a corrosive and toxic substance, made up 60 percent of the chemicals Combi Lift came across, he said.

The decision to remove the material followed the Aug. 4 blast at Beirut's port that was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.

Nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate -- a highly explosive material used in fertilizers -- had been improperly stored in the port for years. The catastrophic blast killed 211 people and injured more than 6,000, devastating nearby neighborhoods.

In November, Lebanon signed a deal with Germany's Combi Lift to treat and ship abroad the containers consisting of flammable chemicals. The deal is worth $3.6 million, toward which port authorities in Lebanon paid $2 million while the German government is covering the rest.

Since the August blast and a massive fire at the port weeks later, authorities have been concerned about dangerous material still at the facility. A month after the blast, the Lebanese Army said military experts were called in for an inspection and found 4.35 tons of ammonium nitrate that were removed and destroyed.