Nearly 80,000 residents were advised to remain indoors with doors and windows shut on Wednesday following a major fire at a chemical storage hangar in an industrial zone near Seville, southern Spain, according to AFP.
Emergency services received the alert at around 1:20 p.m. local time (11:20 GMT) after residents reported a massive black cloud rising from a facility in the La Red industrial area in Alcalá de Guadaíra, a city of approximately 77,000 inhabitants located 15 kilometers from Seville.
Authorities ordered the precautionary evacuation of the industrial zone. No injuries have been reported at this time.
“Residents in the area are advised to close all doors and windows to prevent smoke inhalation, stay indoors, and avoid approaching the affected site,” emergency services said in an official statement.
This incident marks the second of its kind in Spain in recent days. On Saturday morning, around 150,000 people in Catalonia, in the country’s northeast, were similarly advised to shelter indoors due to a toxic chlorine cloud resulting from a fire at an industrial warehouse storing pool treatment chemicals.