Evacuated some 150 workers due to the fire at the Honda warehouse in Santa Perpètua

BarcelonaAround 150 workers have been evacuated due to the large-scale fire that is burning this Friday the factory owned by Montesa Honda in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda (Vallès Occidental), both from this company and from nearby factories, according to the Local Police of the municipality.

The mayor of Santa Perpètua, Juan Carlos Mingueza, stated to channel 3Cat that of the evacuated workers, 74 were in the affected factory when the fire started and that they left it on their own. Mingueza also explained that initial indications suggest that the fire could have started on the roof of the factory, which has photovoltaic panels installed, and specified that Honda used the burning complex for exports.

The fire has completely destroyed a 20,000-square-meter factory, to the point that the Firefighters do not rule out a "secondary collapse" within the infrastructure itself, according to the intervention chief of the Firefighters, Eduard Martínez, who also considered it "probable" that the "hot zone," that is, the exclusion zone, would need to be extended. Martínez indicated that the emergency services' strategy has been to confine the flames to the factory where it originated and prevent it from affecting an adjacent one where offices and production lines of the same company are located.

The Generalitat Firefighters, who are working in the area with 28 units, have requested the confinement of workers from other companies in the Torre del Rector industrial estate, very close to the AP-7 highway, where the factory where the fire originated is located. Although no workers have been affected by the fire, the Medical Emergency System (SEM) has reported that it maintains two ambulances in the area on a preventive basis.

Due to this fire, which is raising a large column of smoke visible in the area, Protecció Civil de la Generalitat has asked citizens not to approach the area near the burning premises and, in case smoke reaches residents near the industrial estate, to close doors and windows. Additionally, it advises the population near the fire to avoid outdoor activities, although no confinement has been ordered in nearby population centers so far.

The Firefighters are focusing their efforts on extinguishing the fire from the outside, as the entire interior is affected by the fire as well as the building's roof, although the warehouse has finally collapsed, according to this corps. The fire, which had originated shortly before three in the afternoon on Friday, is now stabilized.

The emergency telephone number 112 has received 225 calls related to this fire, reports Civil Protection of the Generalitat. Officers from the Mossos d'Esquadra and the local police have deployed a device to secure the area and have cut off access to the main streets of the industrial estate to create a safety perimeter.