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Warehouse fire in Almeria Christmas light storage will leave 20 towns unlit this festive season
Almost half of the towns in Almeria and some in Granada will be left without Christmas lighting this year due to the incident
A fire this weekend in a warehouse in Fondón, Almeria destroyed all the electrical equipment belonging to the company Montajes Eléctricos Romar, which provides lightning and electrical services to around 50 villages in Almeria and Granada.
One of the hallmarks of Christmas is the lights up in streets and squares everywhere, but Christmas has now been ruined for almost half of the towns in the province of Almeria after the fire that broke out this Saturday.
Montajes Eléctricos Romar’s Deputy Director, Adrián Rodríguez, explained that the company has been operating since 2009 and is dedicated to the purchase of lighting. “We store it, we keep it in property and we rent it to the different towns and we also carry out the assembly,” he explained.
According to Rodríguez, the fire has caused “one hundred per cent” damage to the installations. “Everything has burnt, everything inside and even the building itself, which has been rendered unusable because the beams have been displaced,” he said.
The company works with some 40 towns in Almería and another 10 in Granada, although he pointed out that not all these towns will be without Christmas lights because “some already have the material in place”. They are already working on finding new installations to replace those that have been burnt. “They are going to have lights,” he assured.
Some of the Christmas street lights that were destroyed belong to several streets in Vera and Huércal-Overa, as well as other “small villages in the area” in which “almost all the material will have to be changed”. In the province of Granada, Guadix will not be affected, but Benalúa de Guadix will be partially affected.
This incident also affects when Fondón will be able to turn on its lights this year, according to town Mayor Valentín Martín: “We had planned to inaugurate the lighting this coming December 10 but at the moment we don’t know if we will have to change the date or not.”
The Mayor explained that the Town Hall has an agreement with the company whereby they cede several municipal warehouses and in exchange they carry out the installation of the festive and Christmas lights. “Romar has assured us that they are already looking for other suppliers to be able to recover all the material and they have told us to be calm, that there will be Christmas lighting.”
800,000 euros of damage
Although he does not have an exact estimate of the value of the damage, he has estimated that it could be around 800,000 euros and the company, according to Rodríguez, is already working with the insurance company to deal with this incident.
“The only thing we had plugged in there was the battery of a drill. It had been charging for two hours. So that’s the only thing that was plugged in. We don’t know if it could have been that, if it was the electrical panel or something else,” he said when asked about the possible cause of the fire.
The fire took place at around 5.40pm on Saturday November 19 in a warehouse located in the area of El Fuelle, near the exit of Fondón.
Firefighters from the Consorcio de Bomberos del Poniente, Plan Infoca, Guardia Civil, health and Civil Protection were mobilised to the scene by 112 Andalucía, and a 49-year-old man had to be taken to a health centre for smoke inhalation.
Image: Archive
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