One year after the Lubrizol fire, the government presents its first measures
On September 26, 2019, the fire in Lubrizol caused an immense cloud of black smoke 22 km long with soot fallout as far as Hauts-de-France.
JEAN-JACQUES GANON / AFP
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3 min
The Minister of the Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili and the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin were this Thursday, September 24 in Rouen to announce the first government measures taken one year after the fire in Lubrizol.
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One year after
the Lubrizol fire
, the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili announced the strengthening of security exercises in Seveso sites, as well as a 50% increase in field checks by the end of the presidential term - without increasing the number of inspectors.
It also announced the creation of an accident investigation and analysis office (BEA) dedicated to technological risk.
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To read also: After the fire of Lubrizol, the State pointed out by the Senate
To quickly warn the populations in the event of an accident, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin has announced the establishment of a new alert system for the population based on cell broadcasting and sending geolocated SMS .
It "will
allow the massive and rapid sending of priority messages over traditional communications
," indicates the government's press kit.
These messages will appear on the phone screen, even if the phone is locked.
This system should be deployed in the second half of 2021 in priority areas with a high population or representing a particular risk.
It will then be generalized to the whole country before June 2022.
Cellular broadcasting would complete the current alert system of more than 2,000 sirens, which many elected officials consider outdated and ineffective.
Many countries are already using this technique as a meteorological warning network, tsunami warning or fire alarm.
Its implementation will therefore bring France into compliance with the 2018 European directive, which requires EU states to install it by 2022.
On September 26, 2019, more than 9,500 tonnes of chemicals went up in smoke on the Lubrizol site, classified Seveso, and that of its neighbor Normandie Logistique.
The fire had caused a huge cloud of black smoke 22 km long with fallout of soot in a wide radius.
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