One dead and one critically injured after explosion at Barcelona port

Barcelona Port authorities have reported that one person died and one person was critically injured on Tuesday morning after an explosion occurred. The event happened due to a fire in a tank containing an inflammable product at the Moll d'Energia dock.

Health emergency units transferred the critically injured person to the Vall d'Hebron hospital with severe burns.

Two other people suffered slight injuries and were attended to at the scene.

The explosion of a tank carrying acetate occurred at 10:10 am at the facilities of the company Tepsa while maintenance activities were being performed.

The fire has already been extinguished, but a safety perimeter has been set up to allow firefighters to work, and businesses nearby have confined their workers as a preventive measure.

There is no risk of poisoning for the general population, authorities said.

Barcelona firefighters deployed 14 units to the scene after receiving the alert at 10:13 am. The Medical Emergency System dispatched 11 teams.

Port police and Spain's Guardia Civil police deployed several units to the scene, along with a judicial police team to begin the investigation and conduct proceedings.

Authorities activated the port's emergency protocols, the civil protection Plaseqcat chemical warning, and Barcelona's protocol for emergency alerts.

Cause unknown

The cause of the explosion is currently unknown, Sebastià Massagué, head of the Barcelona fire brigade, told reporters early on Tuesday afternoon.

"We don't know the circumstances of how the fire started," he said, adding that he incident was "confined to a very specific area," with "no external impact" outside the facilities of the company affected.

Although he was unable to determine the causes of the incident at this time, he did explain that the four people affected were carrying out maintenance work in a company depot and "thrown" by the explosion.

The work at Tepsa on Tuesday morning was being carried out by a maintenance company hired by Tepsa, Anna Perera, head of industrial security at the Port of Barcelona, told reporters.

“We are carrying out a structural review of the affected area, but we can say that the area is safe,” Parera said, adding that the rest of the port is "working as normal." 

The Spanish government delegate in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto, said he regretted the death of a worker following the explosion.

Prieto praised the quick response of the Barcelona fire department and the emergency teams dispatched to the scene, and said that both Tepsa's emergency response plan and the activation of the Plaseqcat alert from the Civil Protection Agency "worked."

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.