incident review
Up in smoke A fire and explosion in a clandestine fireworks storage site in Paramos, Spain, killed two and injured 35 people in May 2018. George Potter reports.
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Above: Firefighters respond to an explosion in a fireworks storage facility in Paramos, which destroyed several buildings. © Shutterstock, Miguel Vidal
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few minutes before 17:00 on Wednesday 23 May 2018, a violent explosion ripped through a clandestine fireworks storage site in the village of Paramos, a suburb of Tui in the Galicia region of Spain. Two people were killed and the explosion injured 35 others and caused damage to dozens of surrounding buildings, mostly family homes. The plant was located in a large shed adjacent to a home and had been operating for several years, despite being ordered to close a number of years ago by the former mayor. According to reliable sources, the site owner, who also owns a major fireworks factory not far away, had received judicial orders to close the facility and had even been fined. Neither the storage site nor the factory had adequate fire protection measures in place. Tui is a small municipality with some 16,000 inhabitants located on the Miño river, the natural border that separates Spain and Portugal. It is 33km south of Vigo, the major city of the Pontevedra province. Tui itself does not have a fire brigade and must depend on surrounding municipalities for emergency response. The explosion completely demolished the plant and several buildings in a radius of approximately 800 metres. It also damaged structures several kilometres away, causing damage
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mainly to windows. Shockwaves were reported as far away as Vigo, and the smoke cloud was clearly visible for around 10km. More than 30 people lost their homes. The emergency response services in the Galicia region are unique. The region is composed of four provinces – Coruña, Lugo, Pontevedra, and Ourense – each of which has its own provincial capital, while yet another city, Santiago de Compostela, is the regional capital. There are seven municipalities that have full-time public service fire brigades while the remainder of the region is protected by 23 stations managed by three private companies and staffed by some 460 firefighters. These firefighters are recognised as being under-equipped, under-trained, and over-worked. The distribution of personnel is three per station with six 24-hour shifts. The closest fire station to Tui is approximately 5km away, in Valencia de Minho in Portugal. The nearest station on the Spanish side is Porriño, around 15km north of Tui. Both responded to the explosion along with vehicles and personnel from Baixo Miño, Morrazo, and Ribadumia, which are 10km, 40km, and 60km distant respectively. Each of these sent one pump or a tanker with two or three men on board, and while the Portuguese were the first on the scene, Spanish firefighters took from 20 minutes to more than one
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