A spill of nitric acid at red fruit company Hubel in Pechão, Olhão, forced the closure of a public road, until the chemical was made safe and removed.
When firefighters arrived at the site, 1,000 litres of the highly toxic and corrosive chemical had spilled from a tank onto the road.
Bombeiros were called, the Portuguese Environment Agency was alerted and the local mayor, António Pina, said that everything was cleaned up safely.
"Our mission was to make a containment barrier with sand and, according to product specifications, the spill was covered in sand. The Portuguese Environment Agency was in place and will now be the company responsible for the removal of the waste," said the Bombeiros chief.
The acid spill occurred during the transport of a nitric acid in a container.
This highly corrosive acid is used to flush out drip and spray irrigation systems used by Hubel in its artificial, controlled environment greenhouses where chemically induced red fruits are grown for export.
The question that has not been covered by the various bodies involved, is what normally happens to the diluted acid after flushing?
Being a major local employer of hundreds of subsistence-level foreign workers, Hubel is unlikely to face official censure for this serious occurrence.
