A major fire occurred Monday morning in a warehouse in Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis), adjoining the " first " factory of surgical masks in Ile-de-France which was to start production this week, a have we learned from consistent sources.
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The fire broke out around 9:30 am, the mayor (Free!), Thierry Meignen, told AFP. He saw from his City Hall office a " big column of black smoke ". " We were all very afraid, thinking that the fire came from the mask factory ," he added. The fire, whose origin was not known at the time, was brought under control by the end of the morning and did not touch the factory, the firemen said.
The factory, built in a few weeks by the Chinese businessman Hsueh Sheng Wang, had been officially inaugurated Thursday by the president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse (Libres! Ex-LR). She was to start production of FFP1 and FFP2 masks this week. Ultimately, " a million " masks must be produced there daily, according to Mr. Wang.
Figure of the Franco-Chinese community, Mr. Wang, whose journey arouses the admiration of some, also arouses suspicion, especially since he has been targeted since 2014 by a preliminary investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) for " money laundering "and" tax evasion ".
The fire, which took place in a “ 1,000 m2 warehouse ” located next to it, left no one injured, just “ material damage ,” Lieutenant-Colonel Claire Boët of the Sappers Brigade told AFP. - Paris firefighters. A hundred firefighters were dispatched to the scene to deal with the incident.
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The warehouse that caught fire belongs to the company BMS, which stores textiles and office furniture, added the mayor.
