Lubrizol disaster lawyer denounces lack of political will

The Lubrizol factory in Rouen was hit by a fire on September 26th.

-

• Although it was neither dead nor injured, the gigantic fire which struck the industrial sites of Lubrizol and Normandie Logistique on September 26, 2019 marked the spirits in Rouen.

• The lawyer Julia Massardier was contacted by a hundred individuals wishing to become a civil party.

  “Their primary motivation is not compensation, but the will to understand,” she says.

• This disaster could lead to a long legal fight.

  "Since the indictment of the industrialist last February, not much is happening", already notes the lawyer.

Justice "faster and which condemns firmly".

This is one of the slogans for which Gérald Le Corre, union official and coordinator of the Unitary Collective Lubrizol, calls on the people of Rouen and Rouen to take to the streets on Saturday afternoon to mark the first anniversary of the Lubrizol disaster.

In the heads, the explosion of the AZF factory, in Toulouse, on September 21, 2001. The industrial disaster gave rise to a legal soap opera which only ended last December.

Eighteen years after the fact.

“This limits the impact of convictions,” regrets Gérald Le Corre.

Are we heading towards such a scenario for the Lubrizol fire, during which more than 9,500 tonnes of chemicals burned on September 26, plunging Rouen under a thick plume of black smoke?

As the first anniversary of this industrial disaster approaches, Julia Massardier, a lawyer at the Rouen bar, who supports around a hundred people in their legal actions against Lubrizol, responds to

Should we expect that the legal proceedings for the Lubrizol fire will be as long as for the AZF case?

I don't like the comparison with the AZF case very much because we are in a very different era today.

Justice has evolved and, in 2001, social networks did not have the same weight, communication between victims was not the same, etc.

As for the investigation of the Lubrizol case, I note two phases, to date.

The first where everything was surprisingly fast, undoubtedly because citizens mobilized and the media were interested in this fire.

Thus, very quickly, there was the opening of criminal proceedings, then an investigation by a specialized prosecutor's office - the public health and collective accidents investigation center - and, finally, the indictment of Lubrizol. , last February [for "spill of harmful substances" and for failures in the operation of its site having caused "serious damage" to the environment and to health].

All of this was far from over a year ago.

We did not even know at the time whether the prosecutor was going to take an interest in the case.

We were told, "There is no criminal offense, you cannot prove it, etc."

"

And the second phase?

It is the one that follows the indictment of Lubrizol and where not much is happening.

It takes a colossal time to have the slightest element of the file now, and one has the feeling that there is no political will to clarify this matter, in particular the question of the origin of the fire [the fire could have declared in the warehouses of Normandie Logistique before reaching Lubrizol].

An example: we had questioned the Ministry of Justice to find an agreement between the ministry, officials and victims' associations so that the costs of investigation are covered and that we jointly determine the damages and a grid of compensation.

Such agreements have been found in the past in similar cases affecting populations, notably in the AZF case.

But for Lubrizol, the ministry told us that it did not want to take a position on this point.

It is therefore a fear that we have today: that this procedure will last for years to come.

At the end of October, Lubrizol set up a compensation fund for farmers and traders and businesses affected by the fire ...

These guarantee funds were created under obscure conditions.

We do not know how the people compensated are chosen, nor how the amount of compensation is determined.

So yes, farmers and traders have already been able to receive compensation, but they are well below the damage they could claim.

But above all, by receiving these compensation, many had to sign a document stating that they definitively and irrevocably renounced all claims, proceedings or actions with regard to Lubrizol France.

Clearly, these compensation funds seek above all to silence the dispute.

There remain however individuals, who are today the great forgotten of this fire of September 26.

What are the prejudices for these individuals?

They are already material.

Many Rouen residents have had soot deposits on their homes with the feeling, behind, that their real estate and furniture (furniture, etc.) have been contaminated.

Odors are also detrimental.

Those which accompanied the work of cleaning the two plots of the fire [Started in the spring and which continued "until a few days ago", indicates to 20 Minutes Guillaume Blavette, administrator of France Nature Environment] .

There is, finally, a prejudice of anxiety.

Legally, it may not be correct to present it like that, but it does exist in many people who are afraid for their health and that of their children, who have found asbestos debris in their homes ...

How many, among these individuals, are now a civil party?

Difficult to say, other lawyers are also working on this file.

About a hundred people contacted my office and are now in the process of becoming a civil party.

The process is quite complex, there are a lot of elements to bring together.

No doubt that not all will go to the end.

But there are already about fifty families who have now become civil parties.

Other files have been sent but are still not registered for some reason that I do not know.

And lately, with the first anniversary looming, I have been getting more calls from people wanting to become civil parties almost every day.

The vast majority tell me that they do not want to take this step for the money.

We tell them at the outset anyway that the procedures are likely to be very long and may not result in compensation.

But they tell me they want to know what happened on September 26th.

Understanding the origin of the fire but also the repercussions on health, that is their discourse.

Planet

Lubrizol fire: "Everyone has something to say about September 26" ... A year later, the fear has not left the people of Rouen

Society

VIDEO.

Fire in Lubrizol: "It was so violent, we do not understand how the decision to reopen the plant was taken"

• Industry

• Justice

• Complaint

• Rouen

• Lubrizol

• Fire

• Planet