A fire ravaged an agricultural warehouse in Casseneuil, north of Agen, on Monday afternoon.
Forty firefighters and means specific to "chemical risks" were engaged to contain the fire in a building of 3,000 m2 housing a reserve of 10 tons of ammonium nitrate, said the emergency services.
No injuries were recorded.
The firefighters have been intervening since 6:00 p.m. on the fire in this destroyed building, which mainly houses hay bales but also a storage of ammonium nitrate, at the heart of the attention of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (Sdis) of Lot-et-Garonne.
The hangar, now completely devastated by the flames, did not collapse.
"The risk is however very real with metal structures damaged by fire," warns an official of Sdis with La Dépêche du Midi.
The presence of potentially explosive materials used in the composition of phytosanitary 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.
An evacuation over 500 m around the site
“We evacuated the area for 500 m around the site. There are only 4 to 5 farms around, that represents 6 people evacuated and relocated by the town hall of Casseneuil ”, indicated Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Aygalenq. 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 m “exclusion zone” in 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 in the building".
These means still make it possible to 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.
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"According to our records, there is no risk of air pollution because the fumes are diluted" (by water), added the officer. According to him, "the operation is gone to last a long time", "probably" at night.