In 2019, Rouen marked by a large-scale fire at the Lubrizol company

More than 9,500 tonnes of potentially toxic products (engine oils and additives) were consumed during the night of September 25 to 26, 2019, when a major fire broke out at around 2:45 a.m. on the Lubrizol site. .

Quickly becoming uncontrollable, it ravaged the storage warehouse of the lubricants factory, a French subsidiary of an American firm.

Pushed towards the north-east by the winds, the plume brings rain of hydrocarbons over several tens of kilometers, contaminating gardens and agricultural land.

Five years later, thousands of victims are awaiting a criminal trial. It is this same day of “Choc”, a title chosen by Paris Normandy, that Jacques Chirac, the former head of state between 1995 and 2007, disappears.

Notre-Dame ravaged by flames

The same year, on April 15, 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris caught fire before the eyes of stunned Parisians and tourists: for nearly fifteen hours, this major fire destroyed its frame, its roof and its spire. Definitely a big heatwave in France with record temperatures during the summer. In July, fields in Eure are on fire and it is 40 degrees in Le Havre.