About forty firefighters and means specific to
"chemical risks"
were engaged in Casseneuil, north of Agen, to contain the fire - without injuries - of a 3,000 m2 agricultural building housing a reserve of 10 tons of nitrate ammonium, said the emergency services.
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The operation required a large security perimeter, they added.
The firefighters have been intervening since 6:00 p.m. on the fire in this partially destroyed building, which mainly houses hay bales but also a storage of 10 tons of ammonium nitrate, at the heart of the attention of the Departmental Fire and Fire Department. relief (Sdis) from Lot-et-Garonne.
The presence of these potentially explosive materials entering into the composition of phyto-sanitary products necessitated the setting up as a preventive measure of a security perimeter at the place called Tartifume, located in a sparsely populated rural sector.
"Exclusion zone"
“We evacuated the area for 500 meters around the site. There are only 4 to 5 farms around, this represents 6 people evacuated and relocated by the town hall of Casseneuil, ”
Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Aygalenq told AFP, specifying that there were no injuries. In addition,
"in a control zone located between 500 and 800 m, accesses have been blocked and residents invited to stay at home
,
"
added the communications officer. The site was cordoned off in a
200-meter
"exclusion zone"
into which firefighters only enter for
"essential actions"
such as installing fire hoses.
According to Lieutenant-Colonel Aygalenq,
"large hydraulic means"
with
"thousands of liters of water per minute"
were engaged in order to
"greatly lower the temperature on the building"
and prevent the
"risk"
of explosion represented by this chemical substance associated with the deadly explosions of AZF in Toulouse in September 2001 and of Beirut in early August 2020.
"According to our surveys, there is no risk of atmospheric pollution because the fumes are diluted"
(for water), the officer added. According to him,
"the operation is gone for a long time"
,
"probably"
at night.