Toulouse: towards the end of the AZF crater
Placed under seal since the explosion of the AZF factory in Toulouse, 21 years ago, the crater area will soon be returned by justice to Toulouse Métropole.
It is the last remnant of the explosion at the AZF chemical plant which, 21 years ago, on September 21, 2001, killed 31 people and injured thousands more. The last physical mark of the disaster. Overgrown with vegetation, filled with water and surrounded by a barrier that prohibits access, the crater of the explosion of hangar 221 still remains. It is placed under seal and under judicial control and the right-of-way closed to the public also contains various seals, sometimes imposing pieces of equipment.
In a message sent to the town hall of Toulouse, the general prosecutor’s office of the Paris Court of Appeal, the last court which ruled on the disaster, finally lifts the veil on the fate of the crater. Because since the judgment became final at the end of 2019, the area has remained as it is and access is prohibited. On April 8, the Paris public prosecutor took the decision to destroy seals. And a first kidnapping took place in June, indicates the prosecution. A second operation to remove the seals, which will be the last, is scheduled in principle “at the end of September”.
“It is only at the end of this that the general prosecutor’s office of the Paris Court of Appeal will be able to attest to the lifting of the legal seals and the end of the control on the site of the explosion”, sue the prosecution.
On a date which is not specified, but which could be soon, the plot of land should therefore be returned to its owners, Toulouse Métropole and the Caisse des dépôts et consignation. A depollution phase will then have to be undertaken. A step that is the responsibility of Totalenergies, the parent company of Grande Parish, which owned the factory.
For the continuation of what constitutes the northern part of the Oncopole, Toulouse Métropole had indicated that it did not yet have an urban project.