An explosion at the Port of Barcelona killed one person and left another seriously injured on 21 January, Spanish emergency services have said. The incident in the northeastern Catalonia region occurred during maintenance at the port’s “Energy Wharf” where natural gas, petroleum, and chemicals are loaded onto ships.
In a statement, the Port of Barcelona said the explosion happened at 10:13 local time and the Port of Barcelona’s Self-Protection Plan was activated following report of a deflagration at a tank owned by energy storage company Tepsa. The incident happened while contractors were carrying out maintenance work on the tank in the Energy Wharf.
The deflagration, which only affected the interior of the terminal, caused one death and left one person with serious burn injuries. The injure man was rushed to Vall d’Hebron hospital while two more people were treated on site and discharged, officials said.
Fourteen teams of Barcelona firefighters were sent to the area and have already extinguished the fire. At the same time, a check of the affected area has been carried out using all available means, including drones, which the Port of Barcelona has made available to carry out a risk assessment and secure the area to speed up the entry of emergency services.
Tepsa is a company specialising in the storage of chemical products, biofuels, agri-foodstuffs and strategic reserves and has been operating in the Port of Barcelona since 1964.
