At approximately 3:15pm today, a fire broke out at the Indorama chemical plant in San Roque. The incident was declared an emergency and neighbouring residents were advised to leave the area by Spanish authorities.

The Government of Gibraltar had been monitoring the plume, which seemed to grow and spread rapidly over the campo area, casting a dark shadow over the bay. It said that under the meteorological conditions at the time, there was no cause for concern, but the public were advised to stay indoors, and keep doors and windows closed as a precaution.

The Chief Minister offered the assistance of the Gibraltar Fire and Rescue Service to the Spanish authorities.

Subsequent updates from the Gib Govt informed the public that there is no reason to believe that the smoke is toxic. "The wind continues to blow the plume away from Gibraltar and, as it disperses over the Bay, we do not expect the Rock to be affected."

A spokesperson for Indorama said  "Today, at 3:30 p.m. there has been a fire in the warehouse of finished products of our facilities, the smoke generated is not toxic smoke, at the same time our fire brigade have worked to stop it, we have also activated our Internal Emergency Plan, acting both the Consortium Firefighters, Refinery Firefighters and all the means at our disposal and the information was transferred to the local Authorities and 112. At this time the fire is being controlled. We regret the inconvenience that we have caused to the population." 

A later update was offered by Indorama;

"At 19.30 h the emergency is under control and the fire also. We will continue working on the complete extinction of the emergency"