Several explosions sounded this Wednesday around 2 p.m. in a factory in Bergerac (Dordogne) classified Seveso, causing one serious injury “in absolute emergency” and seven “in relative emergency”, according to the town hall. “The situation is now under control,” said Deputy Prefect Jean-Charles Jobard around 5:20 p.m.
The explosions took place in a building of the Manuco company, located west of the city, which produces nitrocellulose for ammunition on a site classified Seveso “high threshold” for fire and toxic risk. “At this stage, the incident has no impact outside the site,” the prefecture said in a statement.
“The smoke released by the fire from the site does not present any particular danger to human or animal health and the environment,” added the prefecture. The water used to extinguish the fire was also collected by the retention basins provided for this purpose on the site, the personnel of which were evacuated in the afternoon.
The “nitrocellulose contained in a workshop ignited during maintenance operations”, indicated in a press release the Eurenco group, European leader in the field of powders and explosives, adding that “the cause of the accident is for the ‘undetermined moment’. “The departmental operational center has been activated in the prefecture”. A security perimeter was established around the site and 61 firefighters, 32 machines and two Samu helicopters intervened.
The prefect activated his crisis center, at the request of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, the latter said on Twitter. “Seven injured people are taken care of,” he added. The seriously injured was airlifted to the Bordeaux University Hospital and the seven others were evacuated to the various hospitals in the region, said the sub-prefect Jean-Charles Jobard.
The white plan was for a time triggered at the Bergerac hospital, in order to facilitate the care of the victims, specifies the prefecture. Thirty-five people were temporarily taken care of by the emergency services on the spot, without being injured.
“Maintenance operations”
On the spot, still sounded, Enzo Granger, 28, boilermaker for a subcontractor, told AFP that he heard “between six and seven explosions”. And it was at the end of the third that he “started running”, seeing “pieces of bricks leaving in all directions, bits of iron, windows”.
He recounted having seen “like a kind of air bubble coming out of the buildings during the explosions”, “the blast”, and “the shock wave”. “I said to myself: you only see that in the movies”. There, “a man came out with his head bleeding”, his “open skull”. “He was missing a shoe, I helped him walk”.
According to the sub-prefect, the explosions took place in a building which contained “less than two tons of nitrocellulose”. Forty people were present at the scene. All site personnel were evacuated but there is now no risk of an over-explosion.
“We heard two thuds, including one that made the windows vibrate,” said Parisian Manon, 28, living right next to the factory after the incident. The site houses nitrocellulose “for both military and civilian reasons”, for “explosives in weapons” as for “car airbags”, explains the mayor of the town.
At the end of the afternoon, there remained in front of the gates of the site only a truck and two fire engines. Employees, uninjured and gathered on the forecourt of a building, had been taken care of by the Red Cross before leaving the scene.
The entire boulevard leading to the site, located less than 4 km from the town center of Bergerac, was cordoned off by the police and closed to traffic for several hours. Jean-Charles Jobart, sub-prefect of Bergerac, indicated that it would take “an administrative investigation to be able to determine the causes of this incident”.
The Manuco company was acquired in 2021 by Eurenco, the European leader in the field of powders and explosives according to their website. In the National Assembly, the government expressed Wednesday its “solidarity with the victims and their relatives”, through the voice of the Minister Delegate for Industry Roland Lescure.