Lubrizol: if a new fire arrived in Rouen, how did the prefect work to alert us?
By Manon Loubet
Published on
“Why didn’t the prefect give the sirens at three o’clock in the morning? » This question has not finished tormenting the people of Rouen, still scarred by thefire at the Lubrizol and Normandie Logistique factories on the night of September 26, 2019.
the Prefect Pierre-André Durand repeat it over and over again. “Not dismissing the sirens at three in the morning was a thoughtful decision. “Today, if it were to be done again under the same conditions, he would opt for the same choice. But since then, a new alert system cell diffusion (via mobile phones) has been implemented. Which changes everything for the state representative. Interview.
Why didn’t you present the mermaids on the night of September 26, 2019?
I remind you that the prefect has total freedom to warn such and such an alert in the event of a fire such as Lubrizol: sirens, tweets, message in the media… He has no obligation, he is the one who decides. That night, when the fire broke out around 2:45 a.m. on September 26, 2019, firefighters quickly deployed to the scene of the fire but also to Rouen and its surroundings. They have set up air measurement devices, ie 26 measurement points. And very quickly – via these measuring instruments – information went back to the crisis room installed at the prefecture declaring a situation without immediate risk.
There was therefore no need to evacuate the city or confine the population, but simply to avoid unnecessary travel and to close the schools. From there, should we sound the sirens in the middle of the night or not? I decide not to recommend them for several reasons: the population is effectively confined – even if it does not need to be – because many are sleeping. And I absolutely want to avoid the effects of panic and disaster departures on the roads while we await reinforcements of firefighters from six departments. We cannot take the risk of having congested roads. Every minute counts for firefighters.
So I decide to make a hybrid choice. From five in the morning, we send out tweets, press releases and I do a radio intervention around 6:30. We then sound the sirens at 7:45 a.m. before people leave for work. I also decided to ring only the two sirens located near the site.
Today, I recognize that the siren system is obsolete. It dates back to the first half of the XXe century, from the time of the wars. Our elders knew what to do (stay confined; do not use your phone; listen to the radio, television; do not go out, even to pick up your children from school), but not today’s citizens. They would have left their homes, would have taken their telephones and saturated the networks… It’s not a value judgment, it’s just that the siren system no longer corresponds to our time, it’s an alert system out of step with modern customs and lifestyles.
What was your priority that day?
That day, what guided our compass was: “no death, no injuries and if possible no destruction of buildings”. It’s true that when you’re in it, you don’t know the end of the story. But I knew that there were three Seveso sites surrounding Lubrizol and three classified sites, all within a perimeter of 500 meters with high risks of domino effects. Especially since we were faced with the fact that there were no more hydrants (water and foam).
“The least bad decision”
As a reminder, there was a stock of hydrants in hangars, everything was in order, but the sprinklers [arroseurs, ndlr] were emptied with the heat of the fire, even before being set on fire. So when the fire comes, we’re out of hydrants. And to put out a hydrocarbon fire, you need water but also foam. So we had to bring in moss from other industrial sites across the region. There was a great solidarity. We also brought in pump boats from Le Havre to pump water from the Seine. From a fire that had become gigantic, we succeeded in extinguishing it in 12 hours, without death, without injury, or destroyed buildings. It was our but, our priority and we succeeded.
For the proper functioning of all the services intervened on site, not justifying the sirens in the middle of the night, I repeat, it was the least bad and the most rational decision to take. But this fire highlighted the obsolescence of the public alert and information system. I therefore pushed a lot in terms of feedback so that we could switch to a modern alert mode.
What is this new modern alert system?
The FR-Alert system, tested at the Zénith de Rouen in June 2022, is now in place. A European directive which requires member states to equip themselves with a modern type of alert mode cell diffusion by the end of 2022 has speeded things up. It was a very important technical job to do for France. First, it was necessary to modify the telecommunications post code, impose public service obligations on operators, carry out technical modifications to the servers… That is a cost of 50 million euros.
How it works ? In the event of an alert, your phone will ring, even silently, with a very strident ringtone and you will receive an SMS informing you and telling you what to do in real time. Concretely, in the crisis room, the prefect will have a screen with all the pylons on which the telephones are born. And instead of activating this or that siren, it will activate this or that pylon, which will send these priority messages to all the telephones near this pylon.
However, it does not work in airplane mode or when the phone is off. But between the part of people not affected by a phone and the part of people who do not know what to do in the event of sirens, there is no comparison, it is something that corresponds much better to the spirit of the times .
I remind you that the cell diffusion Concerns all 4G and 5G phones, for the four operators. For 2G and 3G, it’s a system for sending SMS that goes through conventional channels, it can be a little more complicated if there is network congestion. But in a few years, there will be no more 2G and 3G phones.
If such a fire were to happen again, what system would you put in place?
Normally, such a fire should not happen again with the new measures imposed on industrialists since Lubrizol, but if it were to happen all the same, I would activate the new FR-Alert system over a zone large enough so that even those who see the smoke from afar be informed. And this, from four o’clock in the morning because as there is information on how to behave in this message, there would be no risk of road congestion. And I would not activate the sirens, unless the FR-Alert system was faulty of course.
“I don’t throw mermaids to the nettles”
However, I do not throw mermaids to the nettles. Because imagine if a hurricane tears off the pylons, the sirens, installed on buildings could still be used. We therefore want to continue to maintain and maintain the network of sirens. But I see them as a back-up system, not as a common law system.
What are the new measures imposed on manufacturers since Lubrizol that you mentioned earlier?
The government has decided to translate into texts a whole series of measures resulting from the difficulties we experienced during the Lubrizol fire. This resulted in two decrees and eight orders which substantially modified the management rules for industrial sites. For example, industrial sites today have an obligation to compartmentalize storage premises, to have many more hydrants – foam and fire-fighting water – on site, and retention basins.
You should know that we saved the Seine from an oil spill thanks to sausages in the Bassin aux Bois, otherwise there would have been an oil spill all the way to Le Havre! Today, industrialists are required to have a retention basin to contain all of their tributaries.
Another example, it is now forbidden to use plastic packaging because on September 26, 2019, firefighters were confronted with a kind of moving lava composed of Lubrizol products but also large plastic cubes. Finally, manufacturers must keep a real-time inventory statement as well as an insurance report, which was previously under private law.
These measures will cost two to three billion euros to French industry. Some of these measures are already in force and others will be by 2027, to give companies time to do the work. Some require a little time to set up, such as retention basins, for example.
What can be done to acculturate residents to risks?
To begin with, each mayor must make available to all citizens a municipal information document on major risks (Dicrim) with a map. But there are still too few municipalities in the department that have not yet achieved this Dicrim, only a little more than half. This is not acceptable in a department very exposed to risks like ours. However, I have made circulars and borough meetings with elected officials to encourage them to produce this document, but I cannot sanction them.
A major risk awareness day has also been decided on every 13 October. There will be demonstrations throughout the day, organized by state services and communities. Finally, I think that we should open a reflection within the National Education to do something at the stage of road safety in colleges so that our fellow citizens receive a little more alerts.
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