Thousands confined indoors by toxic chlorine cloud in Spain
Spanish authorities told more than 160,000 people near Barcelona to stay indoors on Saturday 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 Saturday in a warehouse storing pool cleaning products, the regional fire service said.
"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 the 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.
"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 local radio station Rac1.
He said the cause of the fire might have been a lithium battery.
Vilanova mayor Juan Luis Ruiz Lopez told public television TVE that authorities expected that, with the fire being put out, "this toxic cloud will start to dissipate and we can lift the measures currently imposed".
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Around 160,000 people in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region were warned to stay inside on Saturday after a fire at an industrial estate caused a toxic cloud of chlorine over a wide area, emergency services said. The blaze at a swimming pool cleaning products company started at 2.20 a.m. local time (8:20 p.m. Friday ET) in Vilanova i la Geltru, a town 48 kilometers (30 miles) south of Barcelona and caused a huge plume of chlorine smoke over the area. '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 site X. No one has been hurt in the fire, Catalan emergency services said on Saturday, but residents in five towns were sent a message on their mobile phones telling them to remain inside. 'It is very difficult for chlorine to catch fire but when it does so it is very hard to put it out,' the owner of the industrial property, Jorge Vinuales Alonso, told local radio station Rac1. He said the cause of the fire might have been a lithium battery. Trains which were due to pass through the area were held up, roads were blocked and other events were canceled. The fire was under control, Civil Protection spokesperson Joan Ramon Cabello told the TVE television channel.
