LAST UPDATE | 10 May

SPANISH AUTHORITIES TOLD more than 160,000 people near Barcelona to stay indoors today after a fire at an industrial property released a toxic cloud of chlorine over a wide area.

The blaze, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltru to the south of Barcelona, took hold of a building that stores pool cleaning products, the regional fire service said.

Health services said that medics attended to four people who had reported breathing problems. 

“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.

Barcelona is popular with tourists from Ireland, with multiple flights going to and from several airports in the surrounding region every day.

Continuem treballant amb 20 dotacions #bomberscat i el Grup de Riscos Tecnològics (GRIT) en l'extinció de l'incendi d'indústria a Vilanova i la Geltrú. El foc afecta totalment una nau amb clor i ha generat un important núvol a la zona. #PLASEQCAT @emergenciescat pic.twitter.com/qA7VciVqPf

— Bombers (@bomberscat) May 10, 2025

The at-risk area stretched across five municipalities from Vilanova i la Geltru to the village of Calafell, near Tarragona.

“No casualties” had been reported, the fire service said on X, adding that a large number of units deployed to the scene had brought the fire under control.

A toxic cloud in Vilanova i la Geltru near Barcelona Kike Ricon / Europa Press/AP/PA Kike Ricon / Europa Press/AP/PA / Europa Press/AP/PA

It said it was “monitoring the column (of gas) caused by the blaze for changes and for its toxic levels”.

“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.

© AFP 2025

Additional reporting by Press Association