Around 160,000 people in Catalonia have been warned to stay indoors after a fire in an industrial area caused a toxic cloud of chlorine to spread over a wide area, emergency services said.
The fire at a swimming pool cleaning products company broke out at 2.20am this morning in Vilanova i la Geltrú, a town 48km south of Barcelona, and sent a huge cloud of chlorine smoke over the area.
“If you are in the affected area, do not leave your home or workplace,” the civil protection service said on the social media platform X.
According to the Catalan emergency services, no one was injured in the fire, but residents in five towns received messages on their mobile phones telling them to stay indoors.
“It’s very difficult for chlorine to ignite, but once it does, it’s very difficult to put it out,” the owner of the industrial facility, Jorge Viñuelas Alonso, told local radio station Rac1.
He said the cause of the fire was likely a lithium battery.
Trains that were due to pass through the area were stopped, roads were blocked, and all events were canceled.
Civil Protection spokesman Joan Ramón Cabello told TVE that the fire was under control.
(Matthew Pearson/WABE)
