The Seine-Maritime prefecture said in a press release that “no casualties are to be deplored, the employees have been evacuated” from this site “subject to authorization and not Seveso”.
A major fire, which broke out on Monday afternoon in an industrial building rented by Bolloré Logistics containing some 8,000 lithium batteries and located in Grand-Couronne, south of Rouen, was “circumscribedAt 11:30 p.m., we learned from the prefecture.
The fire at this site, which is not Seveso classified, and which had been evacuated at the end of the afternoon, did not cause any injuries and did not generate any dangerous pollution, according to this source.
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“At 11:30 p.m., the fire was contained to the two cells“affected by the flames, one of which housed lithium batteries and the other tires, said the prefect of Seine-Maritime Pierre-André Durand in a press release published overnight from Monday to Tuesday. “The operations will continue until the complete extinction of the residual hearths“, he said again.
“No restrictions on the movement of people have been put in place and all activities can take place this Tuesday as usual.” he added. He had clarified earlier that “137 firefighters were at workaround 10 p.m., helped by 60 vehicles andtugs that pump water to extinguish automotive batteries and foam to extinguish tires“.
In the middle of the evening, a thick plume of smoke emanated from the two buildings of 6,000 m2 each which burned, according to an AFP photographer on the spot.
Turning winds but without pollution
The fire, which broke out at Bolloré Logistics around 4:30 p.m. according to the firefighters, then spread to a neighboring warehouse of the Districash group containing “around 70,000 tires“. The first residents are just over 500 meters from the burnt site, according to the prefect, who warns the population of “winds that could change during the night, with a possibility that the left bank of Rouen will be impacted by a burning smell but still without risk, no evacuation, no confinement“.
However, the municipality of Orival, a few kilometers south of Grand-Couronne, asked its inhabitants on Facebook to “stay confined, close the windows and do not go out under any circumstances“. The prefect, however, assured that the SDIS had carried out air quality measurements which did not reveal “no need to protect the population: extinguishing the fire will take several hours but under the plume of smoke there is no danger, and no worries about pollution of the Seine“.
According to Pierre-André Durand,the only chemical risk comes from the combustion of lithium which can release hydrofluoric acid, only in the heart of the hearth“, but this substance is not “not present outside the site“.
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Colonel Remy Weclawiak, deputy departmental director of SDIS76, present at his side, explained that “the fumes left very high in the sky, there is a good dispersion and the readings near the site and a little outside did not make it possible to find carbon monoxide, hydrochloric or hydrocyanic acid, the rates are zero“. Remy Weclawiak could not give a figure as to the extent of the plume, which extends towards the southeast.
“No victims are to be deplored, the employees were evacuated“of this site”subject to authorization and not Seveso“on the banks of the Seine, again according to the prefecture. Contacted by AFP, the Bolloré group said it had “set up a crisis unit in conjunction with the prefecture“, specifying that he had “no information on the cause of the fireat this stage, nor on the extent of the damage. According to the logistics provider, the warehouse “contained automotive components and lithium batteries. The site is subject to regulations on the storage of combustible products“.
Located in the town of Grand-Couronne, this building was built about fifteen kilometers south of the city center of Rouen on a site much clearer than that of the Lubrizol factory where 10,000 tonnes of chemicals had gone up in smoke in a serious fire in September 2019.