Fire controlled at a fruit cooperative in Lleida

The Generalitat Firefighters have now controlled the fire at a fruit company in Lleida that began on Monday night and which forced the inhabitants of the Vila Montcada-Ciutat Jardí neighborhood, about 1,300 people, to be confined. The fire has burned the facilities of the Arcofrut fruit cooperative, which is next to another fruit cooperative. According to the head of the Lleida Emergency Region, inspector Juan Josep Bellostas, all evacuated people have been able to return to their homes and the deployment of up to 45 crews that was set up on Monday evening is now being scaled down. In total, eight crews will remain, with the command system and a drone team, while awaiting the complete consumption of all fuel.

The fire started in the exterior area of the cooperative's facilities and completely consumed all the wooden boxes and pallets that were outside. The firefighters' efforts did not prevent the fire from completely affecting the warehouse on Arquitecte Lamarca street. In fact, the roof collapsed and the firefighters focused on containing the fire to prevent it from spreading, as there are thousands of wooden pallets in the facilities. The flames were close to some houses in the Ciutat Jardí neighborhood, where the firefighters requested confinement, and they preemptively evacuated the first line of homes. Nevertheless, the Generalitat Firefighters established as a priority objective to prevent the spread of the fire towards the nearby homes.

After this morning's tasks, the personnel have managed to contain the flames and, as reported by Civil Protection, the confinement of homes near the fire has also been lifted and the Procicat plan has been downgraded from alert to pre-alert. Once the fire was stabilized, the firefighters focused their efforts on continuing the extinction and are now assessing the impact on industrial warehouses, both those that have burned and those that have not. This Tuesday, the nearest houses will be inspected to evaluate possible damage.

Sources from the Bombers de la Generalitat (Generalitat Firefighters) explained to ARA that they received the alert at 10:10 PM. The fire mainly burned boxes and pallets. Although it is still too early to quantify the damage, the firefighters point out that the fire will probably also affect fruit stored on site, considering that there are many pallets that can serve as fuel for the fire. For their part, the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, explained on Monday night that she was in contact with the mayor of Lleida, Fèlix Larrosa, and that the urbanization south of the affected company was being confined.

Call to avoid smoke

A total of 45 units from the Generalitat Firefighters worked last night to extinguish the fire, which represents a hundred personnel, and the number of resources increased from when the fire broke out after 10 p.m. The territorial operation of Civil Protection, which had also been deployed, has concluded its service.

The Emergency Medical System (SEM), which was deployed with five units, attended to four minor injuries early this morning, who were discharged at the scene. The flames, which were visible from afar, generated 244 calls to the 112 emergency number. Additionally, several users shared images on social media.