BEIRUT: Eight volunteers with the Lebanese Red Cross were injured when a water heater exploded, shattering windows and damaging walls in a center in Antelias, north of Beirut, an LRC source told The Daily Star.
The incident occurred Monday evening when several teams of volunteers were present at the station.
One of the injured had to undergo an operation Tuesday to remove glass shards from the blown windows. The remaining seven were treated for lighter injuries and discharged immediately from the hospital, the source said.
The volunteers were rescued by fellow Red Cross teams from a nearby station.
“The explosion was devastating. It was as if a real bomb had ripped through the place,” the source said.
She said the thermostat of the water heater appeared not to be working properly, allowing water to keep on heating up until the tank exploded.
“It was fortunate that no one was in the bathroom at the time of the explosion, otherwise fatalities might have occurred,” the source added.
A Red Cross statement said police started an investigation into the cause of the explosion, noting that the center’s renovation will begin as soon as possible to allow the medics to resume operations.
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