LyondellBasell refinery in Berre l’Etang (Bouches-du. -Rhône) on 26 September 2011. Illustration. (AFP / B.HORVAT)
Around 3 am, two explosions were heard on this site near of the Etang de Berre and Marseille-Marignane Airport. “Two tanks, 500 meters apart from each other and filled with chemicals, are affected,” said a source close to the investigation. The first vessel, which contains gasoline, is voice extinction. The second, filled with 42,300 m3 of clear liquid -this naphtha, derived from petroleum refining, is the main raw material for the petrochemical industry – is “phase delay” with the foam spray to smother the fire, said the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône.
Major emergency resources were deployed: one hundred firefighters with twenty machines are on site, supported by LyondellBassel securing means. Firefighters have installed a preventive dam on the Etang de Berre, to avoid oil pollution by the flow of extinguishing water.
No injuries were reported, according to the prefecture, which states that air pollution caused by the double fire is not toxic to the surrounding residents. A wind oriented north / north-west pushes the smoke to the west of Marignane, Les Pennes-Mirabeau and Saint-Victoret. No preventive provision is triggered at this time to protect the population.
LyondellBassel Berre is one of the largest petrochemical sites in France. It hosts a thousand employees each day and many students at universities and engineering schools in the Marseille region.
No comments:
Post a Comment