Thousands Confined Indoors by Toxic Chlorine Cloud in Spain
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Spanish authorities told more than 160,000 people near Barcelona to stay indoors on May 10 after a fire at an industrial warehouse released a toxic cloud of chlorine over a wide area.
The blaze, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru just south of Barcelona, started at dawn on May 10 in a warehouse storing pool cleaning products, the regional fire service said, AFP reported.
“If you are in the zone that is affected, do not leave your home or your place of work,” the Civil Protection service said on social media.
It advised people to keep doors and windows closed in that at-risk area, which stretched across five local districts along the coast, from Vilanova i la Geltru to the village of Calafell, near Tarragona.
No casualties had been reported so far, the fire service said on X, adding that it had deployed a large number of units to bring the fire under control.
It said it was “monitoring the column (of gas) caused by the blaze for changes and for its toxic levels”.
The authorities closed roads in the area and shut train stations to prevent people approaching the affected area.
The warehouse owner, Jorge Vinuales Alonso, told local radio station Rac1, “It is very difficult for chlorine to catch fire, but when it does so it is very hard to put it out.”
He said the cause of the fire might have been a lithium battery.
Vilanova mayor Juan Luis Ruiz Lopez told public television TVE that the authorities expected that, with the fire being put out, “this toxic cloud will start to dissipate, and we can lift the measures currently imposed”.
