Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

At an electronic components factory, fire broke out around 9 am in a 4,000 sq. m semiconductor workshop housing 2 manufacturing chains and gas bottle storage chambers (phosphine, silane, etc.). The blaze spread along the gas distribution and extraction networks located on the 1st floor of the building. A thick black smoke hung over the premises due to unfavourable atmospheric conditions. The workshop was placed in secure mode (by cutting off the gas feed line), and the internal emergency plan was activated; 900 factory employees were evacuated. Ventilation systems at the nearby hospital complex and supermarket were shut down, and 3,000 individuals located within a 300-m radius (including employees at 9 adjacent companies) were ordered confined for 2½ hours. Access to the site was banned over a 500-m radius; 80 fire-fighters wearing self-breathing apparatuses were able to protect all bottle storage facilities and controlled the outbreak in 2 hours. Analyses carried out by a chemical emergency squad on air and runoff water samples revealed no toxic pollution. A third of the building was destroyed. Smoke and extinction water contaminated the clean rooms as well as workshop installations and machinery; 150 employees had to be made redundant. Investigations (both judicial and administrative) were ordered to identify the origin of this accident. According to Inspection Authorities, the fire, developing in or along the gas extraction duct, had been preceded by blasts noticed by factory personnel. Two subcontracted companies were also present in the damaged building at the time. According to facility management, losses was estimated in the tens of millions of euros.