Delicate extinction on a particularly sensitive site. Monday evening, around 5:30 p.m., depending on firefighters of Haute-Garonne, a fire broke out at the factory Fiber Excellencee of Saint-Gaudens, specialized in the manufacture of cellulose and classified Seveso 2. The disaster took place in a silo of wood chips with a capacity of 100 tons. He had no casualties.
Deeming the “risks sufficiently controlled”, the firefighters left the scene shortly before 2 a.m. on the night of Monday to Tuesday, the company continuing operations to secure the silo. More than eight hours after the triggering of an internal emergency plan, “the equipment was put in safety, with a return to normal temperature” and the tank was emptied of its chips, specified the company in a press release. Fiber Excellence also excludes any “chemical risk” and indicates that “the plant’s air emissions sensors, as well as the individual detectors used during the event, did not detect any unusual smoke and no toxicity in the air. “.
A precedent in May 2021
The company also undertakes to find the causes of the fire and to “implement corrective measures”, describing “the safety of people and the preservation of the environment” as “absolute priorities” for the paper group.
This Saint-Gaudens factory was temporarily shut down in May 2021, after another fire quickly contained. Fiber Excellence also has a pulp mill in Tarascon, in the Bouches-du-Rhône.