Emergency responders were able quell a fire and a resulting ammonia cloud at a processing plant owned and operated by Chilean salmon farmer Pesquera Friosur on Monday, 7 November, reported area news outlet t13.cl.
The fire, which broke out at 2 a.m. in one of the company’s warehouses, was brought under control by 6 a.m. after 80 percent of the 3,500 residents in the town of Puerto Chacabuco, where the warehouse is located, were evacuated via bus to the neighboring city of Aysén.
The warehouse seems to have been completely decimated by the blaze. Authorities speculate that the fire started after computable and toxic material combined to form a toxic cloud, which in turn prompted a series of explosions.
