160,000 Spaniards Confined after Fire's Toxic Cloud
Currently, around 160,000 Spaniards are confined at their homes due to a toxic cloud of chlorine over a wide area.
At a swimming pool cleaning products company, the blaze started at 2:20 a.m. (0020 GMT) in Vilanova i la Geltru, a town 48 kilometres (30 miles) south of Barcelona.
'If you are in the zone that is affected, do not leave your home or your place of work,' the Civil Protection service had said on social media site X.
Catalan emergency services said that there were no human causalities. However, they sent phone messages to residents in five towns urging them to stay at home.
'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.
Furthermore, he noted that the reason behind the fire might be a lithium battery.
The fire has disrupted trains and blocked roads. Numerous events were also cancelled.
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