An explosion occurred in one of the workshops of a dynamite factory. At the time of the accident, the unit was packaging Sofranex-type dynamite cartridges on the new automated dynamite parcelling machine, which had been a source of calibration problems since its installation (e.g. problems involving marking, extrusion with the extrusion horn, a radial cutting knife, accumulation of pyrotechnic materials). In all likelihood, these difficulties explained the large number of individuals working in the workshop. The explosive load present onsite was estimated at 500 kg: 200 kg of poorly-sealed cartridges, plus 300 kg of dynamite stored on a cart. The human toll amounted to 5 deaths and 8 injured: all 4 individuals present around the machine were killed (plant director, production manager, safety engineer and a worker), along with an employee working in an adjacent packaging unit. The 8 employees injured were working in neighbouring premises. Property damage was extensive. The workshop was entirely destroyed; the earthen bund walls, despite being battered, resisted enough to mitigate impacts. The closest premises in a 150-m radius nonetheless sustained heavy damage. Shattered window panes were reported within a 700-m zone, reaching as far as 1.16 km (Honfleur). The hypothesis of accidental presence of a foreign body in the paste was also cited. The explosive substances and dynamites not yet parcelled were eliminated: dynamite production from stored nitro-glycerine (1,600 kg of nitrated oil) on 4th March, cleaning of the nitro-glycerine transport circuits in order to avoid the risks of substance accumulation at low points on 7th and 8th March. The dynamites stored in bulk produced on 4th March, as well as those recovered in the workshops adjacent to the explosion site were conveyed to the Billy-Berclau factory. Three tonnes of bulk explosives were returned to Ablon for eventual destruction. The facility was closed subsequent to this accident.

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