when Vénissieux was almost wiped off the map

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Before the start of the First World War, the town of Vénissieux was only a small rural village on the outskirts of Lyon. In 1918, the town became a large industrial city dedicated to armaments.

A terrible tragedy could well have led the entire city to a premature disappearance. Narrative.

An industrial boom

The town hall of Vénissieux was opposed to this project, but France’s military interests prevailed. In 1915, the Vénissieux Arsenal was built to supply French troops with ammunition. This shell loading factory is installed on the edge of Saint-Fons, along the rails, where there is today an SNCF technicentre.

Four years later, until 6,000 workers are employed there: the vast majority of women and soldiers or civilians from the colonies (Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Indochina). The new Berliet factory, one of the largest in the world, is completed and alongside it produces tanks, armored car turrets and trucks.

Less than a month before the surrender of German troops, one of the most dramatic events in its history shook the town of Vénissieux and almost wiped it off the map.

An apocalyptic explosion

It is 6:30 p.m., it is October 15, 1918. The working day has ended at the Vénissieux Arsenal, which has become almost deserted. The giant factory employs 40% of the city’s population and produces 80,000 shells per day towards the front.

For a reason that history has kept secret, an explosion rings out in a packaging building at the Arsenal, located on the border of Vénissieux and Saint-Fons. The flames spread extremely quickly in this giant powder magazine in which thousands of shells are stored.

The bombs explode as the flames progress, in a domino effect drama that seems unstoppable. The firefighters are on site and emergency services are doing everything to hastily evacuate the residents of Vénissieux and Saint-Fons towards Lyon.

It is too late: the firefighters have no chance of preventing the tragedy. At 10:40 p.m., the flames reached the explosive chemical substance storage building used for the manufacture of shells.

Panic in the streets

At this precise moment, fifteen tons of explosive products and the equivalent of 40,000 shells explode at the same time in a dazzling explosion. The railway line is cut, the Arsenal is razed, the walls fall and the windows are broken all the way to Bourgoin-Jallieu or Genas. The explosion was felt as far away as Geneva.

According to testimonies, the inhabitants of La Mulatière, Oullins and even Pierre-Bénite believe in the end of the world. The panic is described in the archives: “All along the road, we only met half-dressed people, women, children, old men terrified by the spectacle they had just witnessed and under the influence of strong emotion. »

Firefighters are struggling for several days to extinguish the fire. An entire part of the city was destroyed by the disaster. Only two deaths were reported according to contemporary archives which show around a hundred injured, including seventeen firefighters and six peacekeepers.

For more than a year and while the armistice was signed, the inhabitants were busy rebuilding. They will not live never again like before : in more than one respect, the war forever transformed the small rural town.

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