Fire on train moving liquified gas halts service on R11 and RG1 lines between Girona and Caldes

A fire on a freight train carrying liquified gas heading to Girona has caused a service halt between the northern cities of Girona and Caldes de Malavella.

The emergency occurred at 11:26 pm on Wednesday, and civil protection activated a risk warning, which was deactivated on Thursday morning. Rodalies started to recover its service around 5:30 pm on Thursday.

Firefighters deployed 13 units with around 40 members to the site, as well as the chemical risk experts.

During Thursday morning, they poured 30,000 liters of water to eject the liquified gas, as the liquid inside the train wagon still burned, like a fire seen in "a candle," Ferran Julià, head of the team, said to the Catalan News Agency (ACN). The action took around 1:30 hours and helped fill up the gas tank with water to extinguish the fire and move it without risk.

The operation was "effective," and they were able to push "all the remaining gas out of the tank with the water, and a gas that would burn at the moment of getting in contact with the atmosphere," Julià said.

"It is not a very common operation, but it has happened in the past," Julià added.

Renfe, Spain's public rail operator, had to set up a bus service starting at 8 am, as they could not find enough buses to operate the alternative route. However, in the afternoon they were able to recover service using one track.

Early in the morning, some passengers headed towards the high-speed train lines, and residents near the site were asked to be under lockdown until around 1:30 pm.

"They told me that there was a train that burned down near Girona, and that there is no train that goes through the city, so they are setting up a bus now to reach Caldes de Malavella, and we will have to wait until the next train," Leo Dutra, one of the affected passengers, told ACN. Officials "did not ensure us many trains, it will take all day for sure," he added. 

The fire started after an overhead power line fell on the freight train and caused a "fire explosion." "We know it has been an arch that cut the wagon, but we do not know the reasons behind it," Julià said.