Several residents near Rochefort pressed our orange Alert us button this Friday at the end of the followingnoon. In question: they saw a thick column of smoke. Quickly, several witnesses identified the source as located in the Rochefort area.
Contacted by us, the mayor of the town confirms. A waste fire broke out around 5:30 p.m. in a waste sorting center in Rochefort, located in the zoning. The column of smoke was quite large, and might be seen several kilometers away.
An air analysis to check the level of toxicity
Firefighters were quickly dispatched to the scene. “We arrived on an industrial building in full fire. A fire already widely spread. We currently have regarding thirty men on site, three fire engines from the Dinaphi zone and the Luxembourg zone.“, said around 8 p.m. the spokesperson for the Dinaphi rescue zone, Patrice Liétart.
Civil protection was also dispatched to the scene. This carried out an air quality analysis. A second analysis is scheduled for this Saturday. “All the fumes emanating from a fireplace are toxic, the purpose of the analysis is to check whether the toxicity is not increased. Given the presence of a lot of plastic, we wanted to know if the chlorine levels in the fumes were toxic. The first assessments are relatively positive and should sweep away this hypothesis, but this has yet to be confirmed.“, told us Patrice Liétart.
While awaiting the results of the tests, the authorities asked residents who saw or smelled smoke to close their windows. Motorists passing through the area were also asked to turn off the ventilation and close their windows. The instruction was transmitted via the media, but also by the system Be-Alert.
One of the waste would have arrived at a certain temperature
The fire did not cause any injuries. The cause of the fire has yet to be clarified, but “at first glance, one of the waste would have arrived at a certain temperature“, Patrice Liétart told us. A truck would have brought plastic balls during the followingnoon, a raw material from recycling which is used to manufacture plastic pallets. These balls would not have been sufficiently cooled, which would have started the fire.”They were spotted very quickly by the operation. Despite all efforts, this would have spread to the entire site in question“, specified the spokesman of the rescue zone.
This Friday evening, the fire was contained and no longer presented a risk of spreading. However, the fire might not yet be considered extinguished. The rescue zone has planned to keep crews on site overnight to completely extinguish the fire.
Already in July 2020, a comparable fire broke out in the zoning. According to the authorities, at the time the risk of spread was much greater than today and the disaster which occurred this Friday is “less important“.
