One dead and two injured in an explosion at a battery recycling plant in Bonmatí
The town’s mayor is demanding its closure after four accidents in two years.
BarcelonaOne person died this Monday morning and two others were injured, one of them seriously, in an explosion at a recycling plant in Sant Julià de Llor and Bonmatí, in Gironès, according to the Generalitat Fire Brigade. The mayor of the municipality, Elena Ribas, explained that the accident occurred when “the boiler of one of the furnaces exploded.” The factory is located about 60 meters from residential buildings, and the nearest neighbors heard the explosion “and their windows shook,” she said in statements collected by ACN.
lamented Ribas, who called for the plant to be closed down immediately,
This is the fourth serious accident since we came to power in 2023.
“It’s a shame that we have to talk about dead and injured people for us to be taken into account; it shouldn’t have come to this,”
The mayor declared:
This company shouldn’t be in this town or any town with houses so close together,
. Following the fatal accident, the City Council has declared three days of mourning.
The accident occurred around six in the morning, and the explosion caused one death and injured two others, who were taken to the Josep Trueta Hospital in Girona. Firefighters received notification of the explosion a few minutes later and activated five units, along with personnel from the Technological Incident Group (GRIT), which collaborated in extinguishing the fire that broke out after the explosion. Meanwhile, the Medical Emergency System (SEM) activated seven ambulances and a team of psychologists.
Neighborhood opposition
The company employs about fourteen people, in addition to support staff. There were seven workers at the time of the accident, although Ribas criticized the company for not providing them with information: “We know almost nothing,” he said. Aside from criticism from the municipal government, the plant also generates resentment among residents, who have long opposed it.
The secretary of the Civic Platform Bonmatí Basta Contaminación, Pere Baguer, emphasized that “for many years” they have repeatedly called for its operations to be halted “due to the problems it entails.” “There have been accidents and air and soil pollution that have been proven by reports from the city council,” Bagué charged. He also noted that the company is located “within an 800-meter radius of the town” and that they have been requesting tests and analyses from the Generalitat (Catalan government) for many years to verify that its operations are safe for the town’s residents.
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One dead and two injured in an explosion at a battery recycling plant in Bonmatí, source
