INTERVIEW
Nearly a month after the fire Lubrizol factory in Rouen (Seine-Maritime), senators of the Senate commission of inquiry went to the Norman city on Thursday morning. Before his visit, the president of the commission, the centrist senator Hervé Maurey, was questioned by Hélène Zelany in the morning of Europe 1. His priority? "To shed light on what happened in Rouen and to understand if there were a certain number of dysfunctions", details the elected of the Eure. More than 9,500 tonnes of chemicals had been burned at this Seveso site.
A first report to "make recommendations"
Hervé Maurey and his colleagues intend to "measure the consequences [of the disaster] in economic, environmental and public health terms" and "to make proposals and recommendations for all Seveso sites in France ", ie 1,300 industrial installations. He refers in particular to possible changes "in the regulations" or "alarm devices".
The Commission of Inquiry spent six months investigating the circumstances of the fire. "The first thing is to go there, says Hervé Maurey, to see the scene, to meet the actors who were on the ground at the time of the disaster, the first victims, the managers of the company."
Lubrizol will have to provide "expertise" proving that there is no danger
The fire, on September 26th, followed by a heavy plume of black smoke and foul odors, had aroused the Rouennais' anxiety. On Tuesday, senators had already auditioned Lubrizol's US CEO, Eric Schnur. Which had been reassuring the locals, ensuring that the smoke posed no risk to health. What the CEO had said the next day at the microphone of Europe 1. "The impact of smoke in the short and long term depends on the products that burned 90% of what burned is hydrogen and carbon , products with low toxicity, "he said.
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Hervé Maurey is waiting for more information to be convinced. "It is very good to say, as he said, that there is no more danger than when a house burns, but it is a bit difficult to believe," he says. If that's the case, then he's providing - that's what he's been asked to do, and therefore he will have to do it - the analysis and expertise that allows him to say that. " And to issue a warning to the company: "It makes us a little more than words to believe such allegations."