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LAST UPDATE | 14 Jan 2020
ONE PERSON WAS killed, six others injured and one reported missing following an explosion and fire at a chemical plant in north-east Spain today, regional authorities said.
The cause of the blast at the IQOXE facility – which specialises in the production of ethylene oxide, glycol and propylene oxide – was not immediately known.
Spain’s civil protection authority insisted that no toxic substances had been detected in the surrounding area.
Firefighters moved in to put out the blaze, which was said to have begun in an ethylene oxide tank, and to “cool down the adjacent tanks”.
The Catalan region interior affairs chief, Miquel Buch, said that “six people have been injured, one is dead and one is missing in the explosion at La Canonja”, a town in Tarragona province.
Video footage showed high flames and columns of smoke around the complex.
The person who was killed had been in a nearby house destroyed in the blast, the civil protection service said.
Of the six injured, two were said to have suffered serious burns, with the others being treated for more minor burns.
The missing person was a worker at the plant.
Local authorities urged residents in the immediate vicinity to remain indoors, while the civil protection unit said the air was free of toxic substances.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez offered “the necessary support” to the Catalan authorities.
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This is the image captured by a CCTV placed in a shopping centre about 5 km away. Video broadcasted by the Catalan TV https://www.ccma.cat/video/embed/6006892/
@Marc Esteve: Wow.
I remember an explosion as a teenager in East Wall, in the docklands. 1974 and gardai evacuated residents to the local Church . We were woken up by loudspeakers and if the fertiliser plant had exploded half of Dublin was gone. Some residents with cars were told to drive to Meath by emergency services! One RTE cameraman died at the scene.
God, I hope this won’t be anything like Chernobyl!
@sam: im afraid it will be Sam. Have you still got those iodine tablets? Take them now if you do. If you dont start saying goodbye to your loved ones
@sam: If the wind was blowing it in the opposite direction, I’d be leaving the area for a few weeks. The air pollution that lingered after 9/11 caused a lot of deaths since.
@sam: Genius!
@RO’S: Feck, I’ve got no iodine tablets but thanks for reminding me, They’re first priority on D shopping list!
The explosion left a big hole in the ground, the Spanish Gardaí are looking into it.
Ethylene oxide room temperature is a flammable, carcinogenic, mutagenic, irritating, and anaesthetic gas. Nasty stuff.
@Paraic: Toxic flammable gas 263
@Paraic: Very nasty stuff indeed. No upper explosivity limit as it can spontaneously combust once initiated (no need for more oxygen to combust). It is currently used as a sterilising agent and there are moves in place to preclude its use as such. Because it is so reactive and forms free radicals easily there are major fears as to the carcinogenic effects of exposure to the substance. I am surprised that “no toxic substances have been detected”.
Very close to salou this place. Massive facility you see it as you fly into reus airport
@Yorkie1892: Here: https://goo.gl/maps/ne5VskGGH7a5Lgtp6
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