A fire in the laundry room of a hotel on Carrer de la Pabordia in Castelló d'Empúries forced a preventive lockdown of nearby buildings on Thursday night. The alert came around 10:30 p.m. and mobilized four units of the Generalitat Firefighters, as well as personnel from the Local Police of the municipality and the SEM.
The intervention ended without injuries, but left an unusual scene. Hotel staff had extinguished the flames with a fire extinguisher after towels caught fire inside the laundry room, and yet, the appearance of a whitish cloud and the presence of several canisters with chemicals forced extreme precautions.
Firefighters ruled out that the cloud originated from a chemical reaction
When the emergency teams arrived at the establishment, the workers had already put out the fire. From that moment on, the priority became to ascertain the origin of the cloud detected in the area and rule out additional risks to the surroundings.
For this reason, emergency services ordered the preventive lockdown of nearby buildings while they assessed different hypotheses. The presence of chemicals stored in the premises led to cautious action from the first minutes.
Finally, firefighters ruled out that the whitish cloud originated from a chemical reaction. During the operation, furthermore, the teams used gas detectors and ventilated the laundry room to verify that no danger persisted for residents and hotel staff.
The operation included cutting off electricity to the laundry room
The intervention also included measures to secure the area. Personnel turned off the electricity breakers in the affected area to work more safely inside the laundry room.
Along with the Generalitat Firefighters, the Local Police of Castelló d'Empúries and the SEM participated, who traveled to Carrer de la Pabordia after receiving the alert around 10:30 p.m. The operation was concluded once the absence of risk for the people in the hotel and in the nearby buildings was confirmed.
The fire originated from towels burning inside the laundry room, although the exact origin of the fire could not be clarified.