A GIANT gas flame has torn through Barcelona’s busiest transport hub overnight after works at the site accidentally ruptured a gas main.
The fire broke out at 10.50pm on Wednesday at Plaça de Sants, home to Barcelona Sants — the city’s main rail station and interchange for the L1 and L5 metro lines.
It began when a gas pipe was accidentally damaged during accessibility works under way at the station to install step-free access.
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The leak was first detected at around 2.40pm, but no fire broke out until repair crews returned that night to fix the damaged pipe.
Eight men were injured when the repair work triggered a deflagration — a sudden, fast-burning flash of gas rather than a single blast.
At least some of the injured are understood to be workers who had been trying to bring the leak under control at the moment it ignited.
Two of the injured are in a serious condition and were taken to Vall d’Hebron, one of the city’s largest hospitals, along with two others whose injuries are less serious.
The remaining four — one less serious and three with minor injuries — were treated at Hospital Clínic.
Nine units from Bombers de Barcelona, the city’s fire brigade, and eight ambulances from the SEM, Catalonia’s emergency medical service, were sent to the scene, along with an advanced medical post set up on site.
As of Thursday morning, the flame was still burning.
Clara Latorre, the on-duty chief at Bombers de Barcelona, said it could not be extinguished until the gas distribution company completed emergency work to cut the supply at several points across the network — an operation she described as ‘complex’.
Mayor Jaume Collboni said on that the fire was ‘stabilised’ and urged calm, telling residents near the site to stay indoors and avoid their balconies.
No formal confinement order has been issued, though the Guàrdia Urbana, Barcelona’s municipal police, has cordoned off the area and cut traffic on Carrer de Sants and surrounding streets, with the Carrer de Galileu metro entrance also closed.
Catalonia’s regional government also placed Procicat, its emergency response plan for major incidents, on pre-alert.
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