the essential
Every year, the Seveso low threshold site organizes a crisis operation and simulates an accident so that staff and emergency services can be ready in the event of a real incident.
9:30 a.m., an explosion was felt within the LISI factory. A staff evacuation plan is deployed urgently. A burnt and intoxicated employee is urgently evacuated to the hospital. This is the crisis exercise set up this Monday morning.
DDM BD
The Seveso low threshold site carries out this internal operation every year, in real conditions, to prepare for a possible crisis. Acid, chromium, cyanide, the factory stocks a certain amount of chemicals. “This is what requires having an internal operation plan,” indicates Johan Fabre, former director of the site (see box). “It is an operational decision-making document which describes the organization, intervention and means available on an industrial site to deal with a major disaster,” indicates Dreal.
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Intervention of divers
The device is well oiled. In the event of an incident, the Villefranche company gendarmes are responsible for securing the areas surrounding the site and warning the neighborhood. The firefighters intervene to secure the chemical tanks. “The personnel are trained and accustomed to intervening in the event of a hostile situation,” indicates Lieutenant Olivier Gastineau. Equipped with divers to protect themselves from chemicals, several firefighters take turns, with a stock of air of around fifteen minutes each. To ensure the safety of the site, a 50 m3 retention tank to recover dirty water, which is then treated before being returned to a wastewater treatment plant.
“We are growing”
The outlook looks positive for the company. “We are growing, between 20 and 25%,” says management. “The aeronautics market is very buoyant. We produce very technical and precise assembly parts which require a high level of know-how, which is in high demand”. The site is also the largest employer in Aveyron in the private sector, with 630 employees. In 2023, the group achieved a turnover of 838.9 million euros, with 19 production sites in eight countries.
After three hours of intervention, firefighters, police and factory staff, the exercise was closed. See you next year to constantly work on these emergency intervention and crisis management techniques.
Three Seveso sites in Aveyron
Lisi Aerospace is the only low-threshold Seveso site in the department. The Sobegal plant in Calmont is classified as “high threshold”, in particular because of its stock of propane gas. Recently, the Snam site in Viviez has also been classified as Seveso high threshold. On Saturday February 17, the factory was about fifty meters from the flames during the fire in a lithium battery stock in Aubin. The three sites also have an obligation to make information available to the public on the nature of the dangers and their potential effects on human health and the environment.
DDM BD
A new management of the site
Since this summer, the management of the site has changed. A transition made over several months. Johan Fabre leaves management to become industrial director of the company in Europe and the United States. The latter joined the group 26 years ago, in 1998, as an apprentice engineer, before becoming workshop manager. He was then responsible for developing a site in Turkey for three years, before taking over management of the Villefranche site in 2014. He was replaced by Johann Fontebasso, an aeronautics engineer for 17 years. He was responsible for production and operations in several companies in the sector (Collins aerospace, Honeywell) and plant director (Mecachrome Nantes).
