At a service area on the national road N-340 at Castellet i la Gornal the driver’s cab of a parked lorry exploded on Thursday night. According to emergency services, the call came in at around 1.40am. A man was treated at the scene and taken in a less serious condition to Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona; the Generalitat’s Departament de Salut classified his condition as “menos grave”.
The Bombers de la Generalitat de Catalunya attended with four units. They secured the service area, ruled out leaks or the release of hazardous substances, according to their own account, and cleared debris that had been thrown around. Catalonia’s emergency medical system Sistema d’Emergències Mèdiques (SEM) confirmed that the injured man received initial medical treatment and was transported to hospital. The services responsible in Catalonia for fire and technical incidents and pre-hospital emergency care were therefore closely coordinated at the scene. Authorities have not yet given any information about the cause of the explosion; a technical investigation is under way to establish what happened.
According to the information available so far, the incident was confined to the service area. No major roads were closed, and there is currently no indication of any wider threat to infrastructure. According to the authorities, it is not yet clear whether the lorry was carrying a load or whether any possible cargo was affected. No other injuries were reported.
In this area, the affected stretch of the N-340 links the district of Alt Penedès with the Barcelona metropolitan area and is a busy route for regional freight and commuter traffic. In the initial phase, responders focused on assessing the immediate danger to people, securing the area and ruling out possible secondary incidents – for example, involving fuel or pressure vessels. This is the standard approach in Catalonia to incidents of unknown cause, intended to prevent the situation escalating to adjacent facilities at the service area and to minimise disruption to traffic.
Details about the time of the incident, the fire brigade’s response and the injured man’s condition are consistent with statements from the Bombers and the Sistema d’Emergències Mèdiques, as well as reports in local media. Official final reports from technical bodies are still pending; further details about what happened and its cause are not expected until they have been assessed.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).