AZF Crater Cleanup: 23 Years After the Explosion, the Last Remains of the Destroyed Factory Are Being Dismantled

For twenty-three years, a small area of ​​the AZF plant devastated by the explosion remained as it was, or almost, covered over time by vegetation. Two hectares out of time, frozen around the crater by the judicial seals that were not lifted until October 28, 2022. Where, on September 21, 2001, at 10:17 a.m., the pile of 300 tons of ammonium nitrate in hangar 221 of the chemical plant exploded, causing 31 deaths, including 21 on the site, and thousands of injuries.

Today, the area around the crater is the setting for a construction site that has been in full swing since this week. Grande Paroisse, the subsidiary of TotalEnergies that owned AZF, is dismantling the last vestiges of the plant and rehabilitating the site, which is due to be returned to its owners, Toulouse Métropole and the developer Icade, next summer.

The preserved crater

After the first phase of clearing and soil analysis carried out last year, then the installation of the site since the end of August, the mechanical shovels have just attacked the concrete foundations and the underground technical galleries. In a second phase, Retia, a subsidiary of Total responsible for this type of site, will have to decontaminate two small plots by removing the soil contaminated by heavy metals and hydrocarbons. Finally, it will also be necessary to remove soil from the site, in particular that accumulated by the explosion at the edge of the crater. All these m3 will be sorted before being sent to treatment or revaluation centers.

An imposing part of the factory, the large raised pipe, visible from the ring road, a nitrate grain enlargement furnace, will be preserved. The 95-ton cylinder will be moved near the memorial trail that surrounds the disaster memorial. The final stigma of the explosion, the crater, which has become a pond, will remain in the future development.