Arab News | Fire destroys Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon, leaving 75 families homeless

LONDON: An overnight blaze destroyed tents at a Syrian refugee camp in eastern Lebanon, leaving 75 families homeless, Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency reported on Sunday.

The blaze struck a camp housing about 486 people in Bar Elias, a town in the Bekaa Valley’s Zahle district, according to an Anadolu correspondent.

Accounts differed on the extent of the damage. Anadolu reported that all 59 tents were destroyed, and no injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s National News Agency, citing the Directorate General of Civil Defense, said on Sunday morning the fire destroyed 30 tents and a vehicle, and one person was hospitalized for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters from several stations extinguished the blaze at the camp on Saada Road, the Civil Defense statement said. Ambulance crews took the person suffering from smoke inhalation to Al-Nasra Hospital in Bar Elias.

The fire adds to the hardship facing Syrian refugees in Lebanon, which has hosted large numbers of people displaced by the war that began in neighboring Syria in 2011.

Lebanese authorities estimated in January that about 1.5 million Syrian refugees were living in the country, including nearly 880,000 registered with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s government has sought to facilitate returns to the Syrian Arab Republic, launching a voluntary return program in June 2025.

By the end of that year, more than 500,000 Syrian refugees were confirmed or believed to have returned from Lebanon, according to UNHCR’s annual report. Of those, nearly 240,300 were assessed as voluntary returns.