ARCHIVED - Residents in Alicante town ordered to stay indoors after car bursts into flames
The blast shattered the windows of houses close to the blaze in the Marina Alta town Benissa, Alicante province
A car burst into flames in Benissa on Sunday afternoon, September 19, setting fire to a second vehicle and shattering the windows of nearby houses, prompting police to confine neighbours to their homes.
The fire broke out in the “very narrow” Calle Domènech at 2.20pm, with a huge cloud of black smoke clearly visible streets away, and took almost an hour to get under control.
The Local Police used a fire extinguisher to try to douse the flames before firefighters arrived on the scene, but they quickly spread and engulfed a car parked nearby.
Este mediodía intervinimos en incendio de vehículos de una calle muy estrecha del casco antiguo de Benissa, produciéndose rotura de cristales en viviendas cercanas por lo que hubo que ventilar para evitar intoxicaciones y confinar vecinos con ayuda de la Policía Local#bomberos pic.twitter.com/sKDMNzgqCq
— Consorcio Bomberos Alicante (@BomberosDipuALC) September 19, 2021
While one crew of firefighters, equipped with a heavy duty urban pump, tackled the fires, colleagues ventilated houses closest to the blaze to avoid intoxication as “dense smoke” seeped through doors and windows.
Meanwhile police officers ordered residents to stay indoors and closed off the street.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt, although the car in which the fire originated was completely charred and destroyed. It’s not yet known what caused the blaze.
Calle Domènech was reopened just before 3.30pm and residents were able to leave their homes.
Image: Consorcio Bomberos Alicante