BEIRUT, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Five Syrian siblings died from suffocation and three paramedics were injured on Thursday in a fire that broke out in the Al-Mina area of Tripoli, Lebanon, according to Civil Defense sources.
The fire ignited in the parking area of a residential building, trapping the guard's room where the five children -- three boys and two girls -- were staying.
Thick smoke led to their deaths before rescue teams could reach them. Civil Defense teams extinguished the fire, and ambulances transported the children's bodies to local hospitals.
Security sources told Xinhua that the fire was caused by the ignition of plastic materials, cardboard, and wood that the children's father had been collecting for sale.
Nazih Saidaoui, a resident of the building, told Xinhua that the children's mother had left them at the guard's farm, where the whole family lives, to buy Eid clothes. Upon her return, she discovered that all five had perished.
The Lebanese government estimates that over 1 million Syrian refugees currently live in Lebanon, with most facing dire living conditions exacerbated by the country's ongoing socio-economic crisis and political instability. According to the UN Refugee Agency, about 90 percent of Syrian refugee households in Lebanon live in extreme poverty.
