Continued risk of explosion in case of fire in Falun

The risk of explosion remains in the case of the large fire in a gas storage facility outside Falun. The rescue service therefore urges people to continue to stay away throughout the day.

The intensity of the fire in a gas storage in an industrial area in Staberg outside Falun decreased during Tuesday evening. But the risk of explosion remains.

“We urge people to continue to stay away and that all road users respect roadblocks and follow signposted traffic diversions,” writes the Dala Mitt rescue service on its website.

The fire broke out at around 3pm on Tuesday afternoon and shortly afterwards the emergency manager issued a VMA – an important public notice – which means that everyone living in the area is asked to stay indoors and close doors, windows and ventilation.

The VMA will be in effect until 20:00 on Wednesday evening, when there may still be gas cylinders left in the area that have been exposed to fire and therefore could explode.

And because of the explosion risk, the emergency services have been forced to follow the fire from a distance.

– There are actually no direct extinguishing efforts at the moment. These are gas cylinders of different types of content inside that are embedded in each other in large stacks, and that means we can’t get to everything, said Magnus Jonsson at the rescue service Dala Mitt, on Tuesday.

But on Tuesday evening it was still established that the risk area had been reduced from 1,000 meters to 300 meters.

Part of national highway 69 between Falun and Hedemora has been closed since Tuesday afternoon and will remain so until 8 pm on Wednesday evening.

No one is said to have been injured in the fire.