Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

Fire broke out in a storage zone for expired substances at a chemical products warehouse. The 200 residents of a nearby building were evacuated as a precaution. The 124 fire-fighters mobilised in response controlled the blaze after a 2-hour fight. Some 20 barrels (4 tonnes of chemical products) were destroyed. The 300 m³ of extinction water were collected in the site’s network, isolated by a valve, thereby preventing any pollution from entering the urban drainage system. The damaged zone was an outdoor, tar-covered area where roughly thirty 200-litre barrels containing expired or deteriorated products were being stored and sorted for eventual reuse or destruction. Aerosol canisters and laboratory products packaged in small aluminium and glass flasks were also stored in this zone. Three months earlier, the Classified Facilities Inspectorate had noted that many barrels were leaking or in poor condition in this quarantined zone, some of which had been stored in the same spot for over a year; an official Prefectural warning had been issued on 10th June, 2005 along with a compliance order to be fulfilled within a month. Inspectors later logged the operator’s failure to comply with this notification.