The disaster that occurred during the night of November 4 to 5 on the Heidelberg Materials France company site is still ongoing this Tuesday afternoon. Around thirty firefighters remain mobilized within the confines of this installation classified for environmental protection – ICPE.
It was around 3 a.m. this Tuesday, November 5, when the duty manager and patrollers on patrol within the confines of the vast Heidelberg Materials France cement plant in Beaucaire, noticed an abnormal rise in temperature on a silo of 'about thirty meters high containing fuel.
Immediately, the production teams (on site 24 hours a day) tried to control this incident which was born, according to the first elements, from an electrical malfunction causing a fire, the criminal origin of which was quickly ruled out by the management of the company.
“Following a strict predefined procedure, our teams set out as soon as it occurred, to try to secure this disaster by themselves. Before quickly calling the departmental fire and rescue service for reinforcement, the situation becoming too complex according to their findings”reported David Metayer, the director of the cement manufacturing plant this Tuesday, November 5 at mid-morning.
Risk of explosion
Quickly, 32 firefighters and 17 Sdis 30 fire engines (a large ladder and numerous ton pump vans) were deployed on the imposing industrial site on the Route de Saint-Gilles. A security perimeter of 50 meters around the overheating silo was also quickly established.due to the risk of explosion, due to the propagation of carbon monoxide in oxygen caused by combustion“, justified a colonel of Sdis 30.
“For several hours, firefighters have been concentrating on the cooling of a 31 meter high silo currently containing 512 m3 of coal intended for firing at 1,500 degrees the components of Clinker (limestone and clay), the artificial rock used in the manufacture of cement.for his part, detailed the director of the factory on site.
Dioxide asphyxia
For Commander Bruno Lebras, at the head of the fire and rescue system put in place, the unusual operation is delicate. Everything must be done to both significantly reduce the temperature of the fuel, and to prevent the iron silo containing the overheated coal from breaking during the intervention, at the risk of pollution.
” As it stands, we have no visibility on the home. Instead of flooding the fuel which risks increasing the weight of the container, we opted for an “inerting” or fire smothering operation. We are therefore trying to eliminate the oxygen from the tank which feeds the combustion.indicates Commander Lebras. “To do this, we fill it with carbon dioxide, this asphyxiating gas which has the effect of driving out the 21% of oxygen contained in the air“.
This Tuesday, November 5, up to 50 firefighters from the Fournès, Beaucaire, Le-Grau-du-Roi, Bagnols and Arles barracks were mobilized at the height of the intervention. An exceptional cooling intervention of 512 m3 of overheating coal expected to continue for several more days, while the crews in place since the start of the operation will be relieved this evening at 7 p.m.
A year ago, a first fire
It was Wednesday August 30, 2023. At the start of the day, a fire had already broken out in the heart of the cement plant, Calcia at the time, when a 15 square meter refrigeration tower suddenly caught fire. This disaster required the preventive evacuation of around a hundred people and the intervention of firefighters. He had caused no casualties.
Contacted by telephone, Colonel Perera of Sdis 30 indicated that operations will continue for at least three days. Filling the silo with dioxide has now become too difficult for firefighters, due to the extreme heat noted at the bottom and top of the tank. And this despite their self-contained breathing apparatus and other personal protective equipment.
