Beirut, Oct 5 (AFP/APP):Fierce forest fires, a monster explosion that killed friends, then more Beirut blazes; Lebanon’s emergency services are reeling from a devastating year, but are determined to press on. Lebanese firefighter Afraa Obeid, a 27-year-old woman with long black hair, recounted how she lost her close friend Sahar Fares in the August 4 Beirut port blast. Sahar, Obeid’s fellow female emergency worker, was among 10 colleagues killed when they rushed to the port to extinguish a blaze — and were then engulfed by the subsequent cataclysmic explosion. “It could have been me,” Obeid said, sitting inside the gutted … Continue reading Woes of Beirut rescuers ‘microcosm’ of troubled Lebanon