2023-08-15 23:08:00
Waste intended for recycling was in this company which caught fire, this Tuesday at the end of the afternoon. The fire was quickly brought under control.
By NJ with AFP A fire is still in progress, Tuesday evening, in a company of waste intended for recycling. (Illustrative image) © BENJAMIN POLGE / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP Published on 08/15/2023 at 11:08 p.m.
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A “significant” fire broke out late Tuesday afternoon in a building in Alès, Gard, storing some 15,000 m3 of waste intended for recycling, but the fire was on the way to being brought under control Tuesday evening, said the firefighters of Gard.
The latter were called “soon after 6 p.m. for a major fire in the Cévennes Déchets establishments” in Alès, they detailed in a press release. Arrived on site, in the northern outskirts of Alès, they “found that the fire concerned a storage building of around 4,000 m2 housing a large stock of waste awaiting recovery”, they specified.
This is “recycling waste: batteries, flammable liquids, oils, wood, anything you can find in a recycling center,” explained a spokesperson for the Gard fire brigade.
A “favorable” development
Some 110 firefighters, 37 emergency vehicles and a drone are mobilized, according to a joint press release from the firefighters and the Gard prefecture. They aim to “avoid the spread to the rest of the company”. “At 9 p.m., the firefighters managed to keep the fire in the first building”, preventing it from spreading to adjacent warehouses, continues this same source.
The situation is evolving in a “favorable” way and there is “no spread”, in particular to the adjacent 6,000 m2 building, he added, estimating that complete extinction, which involves taking out the piles of waste by pallets before drowning them, could take several hours. “Additional resources specialized in the fight against hydrocarbon fires will be sent to the site” due to the presence of flammable liquids, also note the firefighters.
No land pollution
The inhabitants of the Tamaris district, where the buildings of Cévennes Déchets are located, have been invited by the Gard prefecture to stay at home and close doors and windows, according to a message posted on the social network X (ex-Twitter).
A municipal hall has also been opened by the town hall of Alès.
“We have ruled out any land pollution” because the building on fire has a retention system that will allow the water used to extinguish the fire to be reprocessed, the spokesperson stressed, adding that as far as air pollution, “a specialized vehicle” sent by the Marseille firefighters would make it possible to “remove doubt about the toxicity of the flames”.
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