An order was lifted on Saturday that had confined some 160,000 people in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region after a fire at an industrial estate caused a toxic cloud of chlorine, the regional government said.
“The fire in Vilanova i la Geltrú is STABILIZED,” the Catalonian fire services posted on X. “We maintain 24 units on site. The fire has not affected the adjacent warehouses and we continue to work on extinguishing the fire.”
The blaze at a swimming pool cleaning products firm started at 2:20 a.m. local time (0020 GMT) in Vilanova i la Geltru, a town 48 kilometers (30 miles) south of Barcelona.
Authorities had told people in the affected zone to stay home, before later lifting the sanction.
“If you are in the zone that is affected, do not leave your home or your place of work,” the Civil Protection service posted on X earlier on Saturday.
“No casualties” had been reported, the fire service said on social media, adding that it had deployed a large number of units in order to manage the situation.
‘Toxic levels’
The fire service said it was “monitoring the blaze… for its toxic levels.”
“It is very difficult for chlorine to catch fire but when it does so it is very hard to put it out,” warehouse owner Jorge Vinuales Alonso told the radio station Rac1. He added that the cause of the blaze might have been a lithium battery.
Vilanova mayor Juan Luis Ruiz Lopez had earlier told the public broadcaster TVE that authorities would lift the emergency measure once the “toxic cloud” started “to dissipate.
Edited by: Louis Oelofse
