2023-08-15 23:29:39
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 , according to the firefighters of the 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,” a spokesman for the Gard fire department told AFP. The intervention was made complex by the presence of photovoltaic panels on the entire roof, according to Infoccitanie.
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. A total of 110 firefighters, 37 emergency vehicles and a drone were mobilized, according to Prefecture.
Firefighters analyze the possible toxicity of the fumes
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, formerly Twitter.
[#incendie] Information @VilledAles
Following the fire at the Cèvennes Dechets recycling centre:
✅ residents of the Tamaris district are advised = I stay at home and close doors and windows
✅ road users are asked = I avoid the sector pic.twitter.com/m8YORdwtiJ— Prefect of Gard (@Prefect30) August 15, 2023
“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 in terms of atmospheric pollution, “a specialized vehicle” sent by the Marseille firefighters would make it possible to “remove doubt about the toxicity of the fumes”.
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