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Explosion in a dynamite factory

  • FRANCE
An explosion occurred in one of the workshops of a dynamite factory. At the time of the accident, the unit was packaging Sofranex-type dynamite cartridges on the new automated dynamite parcelling machine, which had been a source of calibration problems[...]
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Fire in a fertilizer depot

  • FRANCE
At a warehouse storing unknown contents, the self-sustaining decomposition of a stockpile of 850 tonnes of fertiliser NPK 15-8-22 delivered five days earlier caused the formation of a cloud 10 km long heading westward; in this cloud, the presence of[...]
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Port Edouard Herriot fire

  • FRANCE
At 1:15 pm in an oil depot, an aerosol sparked. One minute later, an explosion occurred that was perceptible several km away. The fire spread and in just a few minutes, several tanks containing hundreds of m³ exploded, sending them[...]
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Fire in a warehouse of phytosanitary products

  • SUISSE
A fire broke out within a warehouse (depot 956) containing phytosanitary products south of Basel. The first responders had been on the scene for 20 min. when fire-fighting teams from neighbouring sites arrived to provide backup. The 80-m high flames[...]
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Detonation of a truck containing explosives

  • FRANCE
A road combination (tractor and semitrailer) containing 19.38 tonnes of explosives (mainly dynamite in cartridges) exploded around 11:30 pm while stopped on the CD 85 road along the Crouzille pond, 600 m from a junction with the N20 national highway.[...]
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Vinyl chloride and PVC leak in a chemical plant

  • FRANCE
The summary of this accident has not yet been translated. In the meantime, please refer to the French summary : Une émission de 3,5 t de CVM a lieu sur un site chimique fabricant du PVC. La chaîne Poly III[...]
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Pollution of the RHONE by pyrocatechine

  • FRANCE
At around 10.15 pm, a fire engulfed a 1,600-m² warehouse containing finished chemical products. Despite rapid intervention, the fire menaced a nitric acid production unit, thirteen 1-ton containers of dimethylsulfate (DMSO4) and ammonia tanks. The metal framework and the roof[...]
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Boil-over in a refinery

  • ROYAUME-UNI
In the storage tanks of a refinery (production: 5 million tonnes/year), smoke was detected on a 94,000-m³ capacity floating roof tank containing 47,000 tonnes of light crude oil (flash point: 38°C). Shortly thereafter, the surface (4,800 m²) ignited. In the[...]
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Explosion of a malt and barley silo in a malting house

  • FRANCE
An explosion occurred at 2:15 pm inside the materials handling tower of a silo located at a malt house during repairs of the facility's slabs and installation of a dust removal system, performed by 3 subcontracted employees. The filling ratio[...]
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