Fire in Sidon Injures 3 Syrian Refugee Girls

A fire caused by a short circuit in a building housing Syrian refugees in southern Lebanon has injured three girls.

The fire erupted on the second floor of the four-story building in the Ouzai compound in the port city of Sidon on Thursday. The compound is home to more than 500 Syrian refugees.

The girls were taken to hospital. One of them, an 11-year-old, suffered serious burns to her face, hands and feet and remains hospitalized. The two others have been discharged.

The United Nations says there are about 1.2 million Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon, though Beirut estimates there are another 500,000 unregistered Syrians in the country.

The refugees fled Syria's civil war, now in its fifth year. The conflict has killed more than 220,000 people.