Company behind Barcelona port explosion suspended last environmental inspection

One person died and one person was critically injured on Tuesday morning after a tank exploded in the installations of the Tepsa company in the Barcelona port.

The company, Terminales Portuarias SL, had "breaches of contract" in its last environmental inspection, as first reported by the Spanish newspaper El Periódico and confirmed by the Catalan News Agency (ACN).

In a report issued in February 2024 by the Catalan Environmental Quality agency after a visit to the site in September 2023, authorities said that Tepsa "did not guarantee the proper compliance with the conditions established in the integrated environmental authorization" regarding the residues generated, the text reads.

The regulators said they found several violations, one of which was considered "serious."

El Periódico reports that company sources assured that the environmental inspection's "breach of contract" was unrelated to Tuesday's explosion, stating that all safety inspections regarding chemical accident risks were successful.

The violations are considered the company's responsibility. The company will have to take action to address several issues found during the environmental inspections. Regulators will return to the site to confirm that such improvements have been made.

During Tuesday's events, two other people suffered slight injuries and were attended to at the scene. The injured person was transferred to the Vall d'Hebron hospital with severe burns.

Although the fire brigade could not determine the cause of the incident on Tuesday afternoon, Sebastià Massagué, head of the Barcelona fire brigade, explained that the four people affected were carrying out maintenance work in a company depot and were "thrown" by the explosion.

Tepsa stores industrial liquid bulk products and gases, including chemicals, fertilizers, biofuels, and fuels. In addition to the Port of Barcelona, the company has terminals in Tarragona, Valencia, Bilbao, France, and the Netherlands.