Evacuate the houses closest to the fire in a fruit cooperative in Lleida

A hundred firefighters are working on a fire that broke out this Monday night in Lleida. The fire is burning the facilities of the fruit cooperative Arcofrut, which is adjacent to another fruit cooperative. The flames are close to some houses in the Ciutat Jardí neighborhood, where firefighters have requested confinement, and the front line of homes has been evacuated as a precaution. However, Civil Protection of the Generalitat has confirmed that there are no people affected.

In fact, the priority objective of the Generalitat Firefighters is to prevent the fire from spreading to the houses. The fire started in the outdoor area of the cooperative's facilities, and the firefighters' efforts have not been able to prevent the fire from completely affecting the warehouse on Arquitecte Lamarca street. In fact, the roof has collapsed, and firefighters are now focused on containing the fire to prevent it from spreading. There are thousands of wooden pallets in the facilities.

Sources from the Generalitat Firefighters have explained to ARA that they received the alert at 10:10 p.m. The fire is mainly burning boxes and pallets. Although it is still early to quantify damages, the firefighters point out that the fire will probably also affect fruit stored on site, taking into account that there are many pallets that can serve as fuel for the fire.

The Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, has explained that she is in contact with the mayor of Lleida, Fèlix Larrosa, and that the urbanization south of the affected company has been confined.

Call to avoid smoke

At this time, there are 38 units of the Generalitat Firefighters activated, which means about a hundred personnel, and the number of resources has been increasing since the fire broke out. According to sources from the emergency services, no evacuations have been requested so far, but the firefighters have asked residents to close doors and windows to prevent smoke from entering. For their part, Civil Protection has put the Procicat emergency plan on alert.

The flames are visible from afar, and have caused 243 calls to the 112 emergency number. In addition, several users have shared images of it on social media.