A toxic blaze erupted at an Icewear outlet in Garðabær this morning, from which its workers reportedly barely escaped with their lives. The cause of the fire is unknown, but putting it out will likely continue well into the evening.
Vísir reports that the fire broke out at about nine o’ clock this morning. Workers inside the outlet reportedly broke down doors and climbed out of windows in order to escape the blaze. Amazingly, no one has sustained serious injuries.
The danger of the blaze comes more from the smoke, which is filled with toxins and is drifting over Hafnarfjörður and Álftanes. Residents in those towns have been advised to close their windows and turn up their radiators in order to avoid breathing the chemicals in the smoke.
The cause of the fire is unknown at the time of this writing, but it reportedly started very quickly. Workers within the outlet reported that mere seconds after the fire alarm sounded, the place quickly began to fill with smoke.
The intensity of the blaze is such that the plume of toxic smoke rising from the outlet has been visible even from downtown Reykjavík, as the above photo attests.
Outside the outlet, witnesses reported hearing three loud explosions within the outlet, followed by the fire increasing in intensity. In fact, the blaze has spread to the neighbouring storage facility Geymsla.
Firefighters on the scene are working hard to control and extinguish the blaze, but the work is slow going, and may continue well into the evening.
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