One young man dead and two seriously injured during the San Juan festival
Barcelona closes the night with 33 arrests and 330 firefighters.
BarcelonaOne dead and two seriously injured during the 2025 Sant Joan festival. The fatal victim is a 25-year-old man who fell from the wall of the Seu Vella in Lleida early this morning while celebrating. When emergency services arrived at the scene, the young man was still alive but seriously injured, and died during the journey at the Arnau de Vilanova Hospital. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have opened an investigation to clarify the events, although they suggest it was an accidental fall. The young man showed clear signs of intoxication, according to the police.
In addition, a one-month-old baby was seriously injured by an exploding firecracker in Palau-Solità and Plegamans. The baby, who suffered first- and second-degree burns to the head, is hospitalized in the children's ward of Vall d'Hebron Hospital. The other seriously injured man is a man who suffered burns when a car caught fire with him inside and who is also hospitalized in Vall d'Hebron. In total, the Generalitat Fire Department received 1,356 calls throughout the night, mostly for urban and vegetation fires.
In Barcelona, the toll from the festival was 33 people arrested by the Guardia Urbana and Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police) and 330 interventions by the city's Fire Department. Of these, 97 were for fires, according to Albert Batlle, Barcelona's Third Deputy Mayor for Prevention, Security, Coexistence and Internal Affairs, who highlighted the "normal" way in which the night of San Juan passed in the Catalan capital. The most significant fire was the one on the Aigües road, where 2.5 hectares of land burned, and Batlle assured that all fires were successfully extinguished. A total of 367 police reports were also filed for various reasons.
Batlle also highlighted "the speed" with which the beaches have reopened, from where cleaning crews have removed up to 65 tons of debris. In fact, throughout the night, the average number of visitors to Barcelona's beaches was 92,000, with a peak of 111,000 at midnight. This is a significant increase compared to previous years, but there have been no major accidents, apart from one person who the emergency medical services (SEM) took to the hospital with symptoms of drowning. To clean the beaches, the police had to evacuate thousands of people who were still partying at the end of the night.
Significant fires in Puigverd de Lleida and Tortosa
Firefighters were called to action across the country, with some notable early morning fires in homes causing personal injury. At 4 a.m., a fire was reported in a house in Puigverd, Lleida, requiring the intervention of three crews to extinguish it. In addition, the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) treated a man and three women for the fire, who were later taken to Arnau de Vilanova Hospital in Lleida in less serious condition. The extractor hood and kitchen cupboard in a house in Tortosa also burned, forcing the corps to send four crews and transport two people to Virgen de la Cinta Hospital for smoke inhalation.
Witness reports of small fires caused by fireworks have been frequent throughout the country. In Martorell, a firecracker caused a small fire in an apartment on Esparreguera Street. There was also a small fire at a home on Gran Via in Hospitalet de Llobregat. Firefighters evacuated one of the apartments, where a man was sleeping at the time of the fire. Firefighters also extinguished an agricultural brush fire that burned an area of uncut grain fields in Rubí, and in Santa Coloma de Farners, a transformer burned on Castanyet Street. The incident mobilized up to six firefighters.
Meanwhile, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) deployed a special operation tonight to ensure safety, mobility, and public order during the festival. A total of 105 people were arrested overnight, 32 directly related to the festival. Of the total arrests, 30 were for property crimes, 7 for bodily harm, 12 for gender-based violence, and 56 for other offenses. The officers deployed by this special operation also issued 37 reports for violations of the Citizen Security Law.
On the roads, there were no traffic fatalities during the festival: 2,243 breathalyzer tests were carried out, of which 157 were positive and 17 were penalties. However, there were 25 accidents, with a total of nine people slightly injured and one seriously injured.