Photos: Huge fire breaks out at Beirut port, Lebanon a month after explosion

A large fire erupted in Beirut’s port on Thursday, sending up orange flames and a huge plume of black smoke that terrified residents still recovering from the horrific port explosion that devastated entire neighborhoods last month.

The fire appeared to have started in a warehouse belonging to a private company that imported cooking oil. It then spread to a stock of rubber tires, the port’s interim general manager, Bassem El-Kaissi, said in a telephone interview. 

“That is why you see the big black clouds,” Mr. El-Kaissi said, adding that it was too early to speculate about how the fire started. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The fire broke out in a part of the port near a major highway known as the free zone, where companies store goods intended for import that have not yet cleared customs. The area, like much of the port, was heavily damaged in last month’s blast, which happened after a fire started in a storage hangar for hazardous materials.