Up to a dozen containers carrying chemicals caught fire at a terminal at Brazil’s largest port of Santos on Thursday (January 14, 2016), restricting ship movement, representatives of the port authority Codesp said.
The fire at the container terminal operated by logistics company Localfrio in Guaruja, on the eastern side of Santos, started around 3 p.m. Brasilia time (1700 GMT), sending plumes of smoke across the shipping channel at the commodity exporting port.
A spokeswoman for Localfrio, which exports general cargo as well as chemicals used for refrigeration, said emergency measures were in place and the terminal had been evacuated.
She said the containers contained chloric acid and sodium dichloroisocyanurate, not ammonium as local media initially reported.
Still, local Mayor Maria Antonieta de Breto, speaking on Globo News, urged residents to stay inside with their windows closed until more was known about the gases unleashed on the town.
Anna Kaelly Silvestre, an administrative assistant, said the fire forced her to run out of her office and leave personal belongings behind.
“We left in a hurry. We left everything. It’s all there (at the factory). Car, wallet, purse. It’s all there,” she said.
Representatives at TEAG and TEG bulk sugar and grain terminals in Guaruja said loading continued, as local television showed firefighters wearing gas masks tackling flames that appeared to have erupted when chemicals mixed with rain.
A port authority spokeswoman said ships were not being allowed to enter the channel due to reduced visibility. Santos Brasil, which operates a container terminal next to Localfrio’s Alfandegado, said it had preventively halted operations.
Fires have been common at Santos in recent years. A blaze at a neighbouring fuel tank facility in April took a week to snuff out, preventing trucks from unloading soybeans.
The local fire department said six trucks were in the area. Local news site G1 said several people had gone to the hospital due to burning eyes and difficulty breathing. (Reuters)
