Saturday November 23, 2024, at the very beginning of the afternoon, a fire broke out at the sorting center of the Household Waste Treatment Union of the Châteauroux region (Sytom), Allée des Sablons, in Poinçonnet.
“There were around fifteen explosions”
“It went off, it looked like bombssays Christian, a local resident. There were at least fifteen explosions. I called the fire brigade as soon as I saw the fire. » The latter were already aware, warned by the security agent who was doing his rounds, the factory being closed on Saturday afternoon.
The fire broke out outside the building, in a concrete cubicle dedicated to sorting errors. “We deployed two high-powered foam vans and a group leader”indicates Lieutenant Michel Monot, commander of the Châteauroux emergency center. During the operation, two firefighters were slightly injured, one inconvenienced by the heat, the other affected by the projection of an aerosol can.
Around 5 p.m., the fire was under control. Helped by around ten on-call personnel from the sorting plant, the firefighters worked to decompress bales of packaging waste to spray them and prevent the fire from resuming.
The on-call staff from the sorting center came to lend a hand to the firefighters.
© (Photo NR, Gaspard Mathé)
“This fire is typically the consequence of a poor sorting actionplague Éric Chalmain, president of Sytom. In this site we should only receive packaging, paper and cardboard. And we end up with toys, phones, batteries, aerosol cans… And lithium batteries can heat up and catch fire. »
The fire spread to bales of plastic and paper packaging.
© (Photo NR, Thierry Roulliaud)
These unwanted objects are “extracted from the packaging and placed in a concrete cubicle, away from the building, before being transferred to the recycling channel where they should normally have been deposited”continues the president. It was in this cubicle that the fire started. “Once the fire has taken hold, the aerosols – where there is always some gas left – can explode. »
Normal return Monday November 25
The disaster then spread to “paper and plastic cubicles” adjoining areas, before being contained by the firefighters. The president of Sytom wants to reassure. The industrial tool is not affected, the sorting plant will be able to resume normal operation from Monday November 25. “And the site is entirely under retention. All the water used to extinguish the fire will be analyzed on Monday and most likely sent to a decontamination channel. »
As the firefighter operation draws to a close, “it’s a lesser evilbreathes Éric Chalmain. But it is an incident that would be avoidable if residents respected the sorting instructions. Yellow bins are only for packaging, paper and cardboard. »
