On Saturday morning, May 10, the authorities of Catalonia warned more than 160,000 people living in five cities of the Spanish region about the inadmissibility of leaving their homes due to a toxic cloud of chlorine caused by a fire in an industrial warehouse, as reported by AFP.
"If you are in the affected area, do not leave your home or workplace," the Civil Defense Service of the northeastern region of Spain urged in a message posted on social networks.
Later, several thousand people were evacuated from their homes.
The affected settlements are located on the coast between Barcelona and Tarragona. According to firefighters who have mobilized significant resources to extinguish the fire, at the moment "there have been no reports of casualties."
The fire broke out on Saturday at an industrial warehouse where goods for swimming pools were stored in the town of Vilanova i la Geltru. According to firefighters, a toxic chlorine cloud formed as a result of the fire.
They said they had brought the fire under control, and the resulting cloud is now being monitored "to track its evolution and toxicity level."
"Chlorine rarely ignites, but if it does, it's very difficult to neutralize," Jorge Vinuales Alonso, the owner of an industrial warehouse, told the radio station.
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