Burst of chemical plant in Toulouse
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On September 21st Toulouse faced a tremendous explosion in chemical industry plant with enormous human, material and economical consequences. The surrounding of the plant, such as a warehouse, by-pass ways and railways, a bus depot and close houses and shops were affected too. The accident was a burst equal to 3.4 on the Richter scale and made a 50x60 m crater that was up to 10 m deep. A commission decided that the accident was caused by chemical reactions due to maybe unnecessary safety measures taken. 30 people died, including eight people from out of site, one of which was a secondary school pupil, many thousand people suffered from physical and psychical injuries. 30,000 houses and flats were destroyed or seriously damaged, 1,800 families had to be re-housed, several educational establishments were closed temporarily. Several plants and buildings on and near the site were destroyed, companies shut down their offices and factories and around 1,000 companies with 20,000 jobs and 100,000 m² damaged area were somehow affected through this accident. As recovery measures, an emergency fund was raised and several medical and epidemiological surveys on people and environment were made. A lot of psychological aid is still being given to people from Toulouse. On the legislative level new laws for risk management, implicating greater responsibility for local authorities, were made in a short time, and new risk prevention and mitigation strategies were spread all over the country to reduce future risks. This was also an attempt to improve governance in particular in industrial hazard and risk management policies.
Newsletter 7 on Workshop 6: Risk management and training
