Firefighters control the gas leak in Hospitalet de Llobregat, but 10 families will not be able to return home.
The incident occurred on the street and there was a small explosion in a bar with one person taken to the hospital.
BarcelonaAt around 5:30 p.m. this Wednesday, firefighters managed to stop the gas leak that had been operating on Nazaret Street in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat since this morning. The leak was detected at the intersection of three high-, medium-, and low-voltage pipelines. Shortly before stopping the leak, firefighters had warned that the situation was "very dangerous" because the leak had been active for more than six hours. Around 8:00 p.m., the situation improved, and firefighters declared the leak under control. Furthermore, the mayor of Hospitalet, David Quirós, confirmed that most of the 500 residents who had to be evacuated will be able to return home tonight, with the exception of ten families who will be able to do so tomorrow.
This morning, as a precaution, the emergency services ordered the lockdown of several blocks of flats and also evacuated the nearest buildings, including the Escola Prat de la Manta. At the beginning of the escape, there was an explosion in a nearby bar that caused a partition wall to collapse. One person inside had to be taken to Bellvitge Hospital, and the security perimeter was extended to the blocks between Gran Vía and Plaza Lola Anglada, and the streets Fernández Lirola and Castelao.
Toni Varela, owner of the Casa Varela 1984 restaurant, the premises where the explosion occurred, was at home when construction workers across the street notified him of a gas leak. He told ARA that he quickly went to the restaurant, cut off the gas, and evacuated the premises, but the explosion was still not prevented.
As a result of the impact, the wall in front of the restaurant collapsed and the windows were broken, but he does not yet know if there was any structural damage. "If I'm lucky, I'll be able to open in a month or three weeks," explained Varela, who will spend the night guarding the establishment. They've been in the neighborhood for 40 years, and he insisted that the most important thing is the neighbors. "We hope the blog is okay, that the people are okay, and that things can be resolved," said the owner of the establishment, who helped people escape from the building after the explosion.
The Generalitat Fire Department (Catalan Government) has been working since Wednesday morning on a major gas leak on Nazaret Street in Hospitalet de Llobregat. Hours after the alert, the leak was still active, which had concerned the fire department. "It's been going on for a long time, longer than usual, and that means the leak is injecting a lot of gas into various buildings in the area for a long time. We have a lot of gas in the sewers and parking lots," warned Enric Pous, the on-duty chief of the Generalitat Fire Department, early this afternoon. In fact, the firefighter admitted that they were facing "a very dangerous situation." Pous explained that "the emergency is absolutely active" and that the gas leak in the street was ongoing, as the gas company had not yet been able to shut it off, although it had allocated "many resources."
Pous explained that the leak was in the street, at a private civil engineering project that had perforated a pipeline. He also warned that, given that the leak had been active for hours, gas was being injected into various buildings in the area. He added that, although the gas tends to rise, it was escaping so much that it was spreading into the sewers and parking lots in the area: "The gas is escaping with such intensity that it is being injected into underground spaces that we cannot control and are unable to easily ventilate," he warned.
Residents will probably not be able to sleep at home.
The Hospitalet de Llobregat City Council has set up a care center for evacuated residents near the Gran Via 2 shopping center, providing food and water to those evacuated. This afternoon, technical teams and the Fire Department will assess who can return home.
Pous warned that once the leak can be stopped—which was achieved at 5:15 p.m.—the next step will be to "go house by house, basement by basement" to verify that no trace of the gas remains. Considering that eleven buildings have been evacuated, in addition to all commercial premises and parking lots, Pous stated that "possibly" people will have to sleep away from home because the entire verification process will not be completed by nightfall.