Murphy's Law is true. Friday evening, November 29, 2024, the Liot Châtellerault 86 factory, specializing in the manufacture of animal feed, in the northern area of Châtellerault, was the victim of a fire and an explosion in a silo. An employee who was unloading bags of flour near a dryer was injured by the blast from the detonation, according to the first elements of the investigation.
Factory fined in 2022 for fire risks
Question: was the disaster avoidable? In any case, the prefecture suspected it. She had sounded the alarm in 2022, already fearing a risk “short-term fire or explosion”.
In the prefectural decree of June 28, 2022, the company chaired by Pierre Liot had, in this sense, been the subject of a formal notice to carry out compliance work (January 2022) and an administrative penalty (June 2022).
Specifically, the factory had been fined €450 per day for “marked breaches” to the regulation of installations classified for environmental protection. The prefecture pointed out in particular “highly dusty installations”, “the absence of a cleaning register “, of the “waste such as tires and pallets stored in grassy areas”of the “non-compliant electrical installations” or even “the defect in the system allowing the recovery of extinguishing water in the event of a fire”.
Friday November 20, the Liot factory in Châtellerault was the victim of a fire and an explosion.
© Photo NR-CP, Denys Frétier
Grain watch appearance
At the time, the CEO of Liot Châtellerault, Pierre Liot, responded to state services that he would remedy the shortcomings (the company submitted a permit request to Châtellerault town hall on September 29, 2024 for the construction of 'a shed with photovoltaic panels) except on one point: dust emissions. Pierre Liot explaining that he was unable to meet the requirements for technical and cost reasons.
Or, “the use of animal meal, not provided for in the authorization to operate the Liot factory in Châtellerault, has only amplified the risk of fire and explosion, because the dust from these flours is known to be very flammable”reacts in a press release dated Monday, December 2 Aspect (Association for the safeguarding and protection of the environment of Coussay-les-Bois and its thermal region), mobilized for years against the project and the development of the farm of 1,200 bulls in Coussay-les-Bois.
At the end of December 2022, in a new prefectural decree, we learned that the administrative penalty was partially liquidated for an amount of €10,000, paid by the Liot company. A partial lifting because, notes the prefecture, “the facilities are [toujours] heavily dusty » et “the operator has not justified its ability to recover extinguishing water in the event of a fire. »
Truculent and lapidary Mr. Liot
Contacted, the truculent industrialist of the seraglio Pierre Liot, 85 years old, owner of cattle farms and animal feed factories, always has the pithy comment : “There was an electrical problem, I don’t really know exactly what. It has nothing to do with dust. There was nothing extraordinary. There's nothing else to say… There you go, thank you! »
