BEIRUT – A fire erupted in a landmark building in Beirut‘s commercial district on Tuesday, the second blaze this month to send shudders through a capital still in shock after a massive port blast in August ripped through the Mediterranean city.
There were no immediate reports of casualties and the blaze was quickly extinguished, but it left residents exasperated in a nation that has been hammered by a deep economic crisis and which is waiting for its politicians to form a new government.
“It’s terrible. It’s unbelievable,” said Joe Sayegh, 48, who had been on a jog through the city before coming to the scene. “Every day we have a problem.”
![Click to play video: 'Fire erupts at Beirut port one month after deadly explosion'](https://i0.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/ki3um5h9xo-e1o1u2blgo/BEIRUTFIER.jpg?w=1040&quality=70&strip=all)
Fire trucks quickly doused the flames that charred a corner of the futuristic building designed by the practice set up by the late Zaha Hadid, the renowned British-Iraqi architect.
The building near the seafront which has been under construction for years and its curved lines have become a prominent feature of the central commercial area rebuilt from the 1975-1990 civil war.
During the reconstruction, skyscrapers designed by international architects have gone up and historical Ottoman-era buildings have been renovated.
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But protests during an economic crisis that was caused by a mountain of debt had already driven many businesses out of the city center and left many buildings scarred, before the Aug. 4 port blast ruined another swathe of the capital.
![Click to play video: 'Search for survivors continues after Beirut blast'](https://i2.wp.com/media.globalnews.ca/videostatic/news/59dcdxad9p-741vdtzsms/web_beirut_pic.jpg?w=1040&quality=70&strip=all)
The government resigned after the port blast, which was blamed on highly explosive ammonium nitrate kept in poor storage conditions for years. This month, a big port fire flared up among the ruined warehouses, adding to the devastation.
France is pressing Lebanon to form a new government to tackle endemic corruption and implement reforms to unlock aid. But many Lebanese remain skeptical that Lebanon’s political elite can chart a new course.
“With these people, if they are the same people, nothing will change,” Sayegh said.
— Additional reporting by Tom Perry; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Ed Osmond
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