A major fire ravaged two disused buildings in Rouen on Saturday evening, September 30, which collapsed, the firefighters and town hall announced. The fire released large plumes of smoke above the city, hit by the fire at the Lubrizol factory just four years ago.
According to firefighters, the fire broke out on the first floor of an eight-story building “disused but probably squatted” in the Saint-Julien district. These are the glass and steel buildings of the Pépinières, located on the left bank of the city.
The fire, which broke out around 6 p.m., “spread in the evening to a second disused building. The two buildings collapsed,” the town hall said in a press release released overnight from Saturday to Sunday. “The fire now appears to be contained and the risk of spread has been eliminated”, “the final extinguishing phase of the fire is underway”, continues the press release. The fire, the origin of which is unknown, did not cause any casualties, said the town hall.
Four years after Lubrizol
Around 130 firefighters were mobilized and up to twenty emergency vehicles. “These buildings are made of steel and glass. Under the fire, the steel softened,” Thomy Chauvel, commander of rescue operations, explained to the Paris-Normandie daily.
Dating from the 1970s, these buildings contain asbestos. They had been empty since 2018. “Regarding the toxicity of the smoke, measurements were taken by the departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS) throughout the operation,” announced the town hall. No dangerous threshold has been identified. »
Additional analyzes concerning in particular asbestos will be carried out “from this Sunday”, says the town hall. “Sampling and analysis of soot fallout will be carried out, as well as ground measurements and air controls,” according to the press release. Results will be known within forty-eight to seventy-two hours. The town hall asks residents “not to collect potential fallout (soot and debris), while awaiting the results of the analysis”.
Schools closed nearby
Nursery and elementary schools located near the fire will remain closed as a “precautionary principle,” continues the town hall, which will bring together a crisis unit on Sunday. A gymnasium was requisitioned by the town hall in case people from the neighborhood had to be evacuated.
The city of Rouen remains very marked by the fire at the Lubrizol factory in September 2019, during which more than 9,500 tonnes of chemicals burned. This automotive lubricants site was classified Seveso high threshold.
In January 2023, another fire struck the Bolloré Logistics company site in Grand-Couronne in Seine-Maritime, again without causing any casualties. It notably affected a warehouse where 12,000 lithium automobile batteries were stored, on an unclassified Seveso industrial site.
