Tharwat Hoteit

Tharwat was a strong, athletic, well-built man...  His outside strength complemented his inner soul. Deep down, he was a humanitarian who had so much love to give…

He worked for twenty years at the fire and safety department at the Port of Beirut. However, the department was not equipped with modern equipment, instead it was manual, traditional fire extinguishers. Such equipment would not extinguish a small fire, needless to say it was useless against what happened on August 4!!

Tharwat did not pursue an academic education, but his passion for sports kindled other interests. He played Taekwondo and Kickboxing, and became a sports coach. He recently won the first place in the Lebanese Kickboxing Championship.

He was funny, with a huge sense of humor, a good sport, respectful, and always avoided conflicts and problems. Tharwat who grew up an orphan, was the father of Hadi (15) and an unborn child. He gave his family all the love he was missing his whole life…

In addition to his family, Tharwat had a dog best friend –Lexie; His dog died four days after she lost him…

He also had a beautiful voice, and even participated in SuperStar singing competition, but his life conditions led him to become a firefighter, whose life will end in a nuclear like explosion.

Tharwat was missing for twelve days after the Beirut blast. His family tried to identify his remains. First, they lost hope he would be alive, then they lost hope they would find his body, or even his remains. They later found his hand and leg; a few days later they found the top of his head. His family could not bury him before his body was complete, but when they found his chest, they buried him…

Nothing else was found of him… like many other innocent victims whose body parts vanished in the cruelty of the explosion… they will forever quench the thirst of their beloved land.