Latest news with #emergencia
Al Bawaba
7 days ago
- Business
- Al Bawaba
Massive explosion triggers fire at Ecuador's largest oil refinery
ALBAWABA- A major explosion rocked Ecuador's largest oil refinery, the Esmeraldas Refinery, on Saturday, triggering a large fire and prompting emergency evacuations, according to the country's Energy Minister, as reported by AFP. The explosion reportedly originated in the facility's sulfur plant, part of the state-owned complex on the Pacific coast. Firefighters were immediately deployed to the scene, working alongside plant personnel to contain the blaze. 🚨#AlertaADN Una fuerte explosión en la refinería de Esmeraldas, en una planta de azufre, ha movilizado a los servicios de emergencia en Ecuador; hasta el momento se desconoce el saldo del accidente — adn40 (@adn40) May 26, 2025 In response, the Bloque de Seguridad mobilized operational and logistical units to assist in controlling the fire and protecting the facility. Authorities have also begun evacuating nearby residents as a precautionary measure to safeguard civilian lives. There are no confirmed reports of casualties, and officials have not disclosed the full extent of the damage. The Esmeraldas Refinery is a key component of Ecuador's energy infrastructure.
Phone Arena
21-05-2025
- Phone Arena
All telecom providers in Spain suffer from a widespread outage
Some weeks ago, all eyes were on Spain and Portugal: it was unbelievable that in 2025, two major European countries could experience a total power blackout for 18 hours. The outage affected millions, halted trains and flights, forced businesses to close, and much more. Now, Spain has been experiencing a widespread phone network failure and disrupted communications early Tuesday, disabling emergency lines in much of the country for several hours. The disruption affected all major telecom providers, including Movistar, Orange, Vodafone, Digimobil, and O2. According to the monitoring site DownDetector, the blackout began around 5 a.m., leaving customers unable to make phone calls, send or receive text messages, or access mobile of service loss quickly spread nationwide, with users in major cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia, Seville, Murcia, and Bilbao describing total blackouts and signal loss. Internet issues were also widespread, adding to the impact. Millions were affected. | Image by PhoneArena Telefónica, one of Spain's largest telecom companies, stated that the outage resulted from planned maintenance work. The company explained that the network upgrade unexpectedly affected fixed communication services, including landlines and internet connections. Many users also found themselves unable to reach the national emergency number, 112. In response to the service disruption, emergency departments in Valencia, Aragón, and the Basque Country took to social media to share alternative mobile numbers for emergency contact. Authorities in Catalonia and Extremadura confirmed their 112 services were impacted but assured the public that backup systems had been implemented. In Andalusia, officials acknowledged a national issue with the emergency network, though they reported that service was gradually late morning, Telefónica announced that full service had been restored. Spain's minister for digital transformation, Óscar López, confirmed the resolution and expressed gratitude for the company's prompt response. He stated that authorities had been in contact with Telefónica from the outset and noted that the incident had been resolved entirely. With over 41 million users, Telefónica operates nearly all of Spain's landline infrastructure. DownDetector also recorded a sharp rise in outage reports early Tuesday across other major providers like Movistar, O2, and Orange.
Associated Press
17-05-2025
- Climate
- Associated Press
AP PHOTOS: Heavy rainfall floods Argentine highways, forces evacuations
CAMPANA, Argentina (AP) — More than 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate rural areas north of Argentina's capital after several days of heavy rainfall flooded highways, farmlands and entire neighborhoods. ___ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
CTV News
17-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Heavy rainfall floods Argentine highways, forces evacuations
Boats move through flooded streets after heavy rains in Campana, Argentina, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — More than 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate rural areas north of Argentina's capital after several days of heavy rainfall flooded highways, farmlands and entire neighborhoods. A bus with 44 passengers was stranded overnight for more than 10 hours on one of the roadways connecting Buenos Aires to the interior. Between 8 and 15 inches (300 and 400 mm) of rain has fallen in the past 72 hours when the average monthly precipitation is about 1.7 inches, officials said. More wet weather followed by heavy wind is expected and authorities are urging residents, especially the 275,000 near the city of Zarate along the Parana River, to remain indoors. Authorities likened the storm to one in March that killed at least 16 people.
The Guardian
10-05-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Toxic chlorine cloud near Barcelona confines more than 160,000 indoors
Spanish authorities have told more than 160,000 people near Barcelona to stay indoors 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 Geltrú, 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 Geltrú 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,' the warehouse owner Jorge Vinuales Alonso told local radio station Rac1. He said the fire may have been caused by a lithium battery. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion The mayor of Vilanova, Juan Luis Ruiz López, told the public TV station TVE that now the fire had been extinguished the authorities expected 'this toxic cloud will start to dissipate and we can lift the measures currently imposed'.
