Powerful explosions tore through an industrial park near Buenos Aires on Friday night, causing a huge fire and injuring more than 20 people.
Thick smoke rose hundreds of metres into the air as the night sky was turned orange by the enormous blaze. Flights to and from the country’s busiest international airport, just outside Argentina’s capital, were cancelled or delayed.
The cause of the explosions is not yet known, but it is believed that five different factories were on fire. Several companies manufacturing tyres, chemical products and other goods are located in the industrial area.
“The explosions and fire breaking out in the different factories are huge,” Gaston Granados, the mayor of Ezeiza, the area in which the industrial park is located, said on the C5N television channel. “We are trying to control [the fire] and extinguish it, but have not been able to so far.”
He added that the windows of his nearby house had been shattered and that the authorities were evacuating families from the area.
Firefighters were still battling to put out the fire on Saturday, after authorities warned that it would be challenging to bring the blaze under control.
“It is a complex fire. It will be a long fire,” said Fabian Garcia, the civil defence director for Buenos Aires province.
Carlos Santoro, a hospital director, said his facility had received 22 injured people. A patient with a heart attack and a pregnant woman suffering from respiratory issues were among those admitted, he added.
