The two gigantic explosions in the port of Beirut which left more than 100 dead and 4,000 wounded rekindled the traumatic memories of the AZF disaster in 2001 in Toulouse on Wednesday, victims' associations expressing their "compassion and anger".
"It's the same spectacle as AZF to a greater degree, the same vision of wounded, swept away walls and degradation", explains Jacques Mignard, president of the "AZF - Mémoire et Solidarité" association.
On September 21, 2001, 300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a hangar in the middle of Toulouse exploded. The explosion, which blows the chemical complex AZF (Nitrogen Fertilizers), is heard up to 80 km around, killing 31 and injuring 2,500.
Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab told him that these explosions were mainly due to the explosion of some 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate.
“Every time there is compassion. It is terrible for the Lebanese when we remember what we went through ”, insists Claudine Molin, member of the association“ Never again, neither here nor elsewhere ”.
"Our experience was useless"
Ammonium nitrate, which is used in the composition of certain fertilizers but also of explosives, "cannot be stored anywhere and anyhow", underlines the former rapporteur of a commission of inquiry on the AZF disaster.
" I'm mad. Our experience was of no use. In two years, we won't remember it anymore and that saddens me. It should not happen again in 2020 ", contends Claudine Molin, insisting on the need" to be interested in industrial risks apart from disasters ".
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers. Learn more
The former director of the AZF chemical plant and the operating company were definitively sentenced at the end of 2019, 18 years after the explosion which traumatized and upset Toulouse, the Court of Cassation having rejected their appeals.
“We tell ourselves that we are storing so much nitrate and we don't mind it. This is terrible. It's a series of negligence, it's always the same thing ”, regrets Serge Baggi.
The former director Serge Biechlin had been sentenced to 15 months suspended sentence for "manslaughter", and the company managing the site, the company Grande Paroisse, to a maximum fine of 225,000 euros.
