A large storage warehouse, between 17,000 and 20,000 m², caught fire during the night from Thursday to Friday, around 2:45 a.m., at 34, avenue Charles-de-Gaulle, in Stains. At the height of the mobilization, some 150 firefighters were deployed on site to contain and overcome this disaster. In total more than 200 firefighters participated in this intervention, which is still ongoing, but with a reduced device.
All the barracks under the jurisdiction of the Paris fire brigade have been mobilized, i.e. “twenty”, underlines this Friday morning, the spokesperson for the BSPP. They received reinforcement from the Val-d’Oise firefighters. “No casualties are to be deplored”, specifies the representative of the firefighters.
The fire is “under control” but “not yet considered extinguished,” he adds. In this kind of space, the fire can be smoldering, so we will continue to drown the residual hearths to avoid any risk of resumption. »
Up to twelve fire hoses were used at the same time, “including ten high-speed, insists the BSPP spokesperson. These gun lances deliver 3,000 liters of water per minute. It is a very large hydraulic device”.
A security perimeter has been set up to allow the intervention of firefighters. Part of the neighborhood has been cordoned off. Avenue Charles de Gaulle, part of rue du Moutier and rue des Huleux were closed. Many fire trucks were stationed there. Their command post was set up at the corner of these last two streets.
“I live at the end of the street, confides a man, who came to see the damage. I haven’t heard anything this morning. My room is on the other side. I saw all that when I went to drop off Madame at the station. They wouldn’t let us through, there was too much smoke. It was 5 o’clock in the morning. A few hours later, the man returned. To contemplate the disaster. “It really warmed up the jails,” he exclaims. They are all bent. »
In front of him, behind the fence, the firefighters are still at work. They try to put out the residual foci. The warehouse is located in the Cerisaie business area. It is isolated but combines many boxes, belonging to associations, companies, wholesalers of clothing, food.
An agent of the municipality tried to make this Friday a census of all the activities. A woman was worried about whether her place of worship had been hit. “Every Saturday, we come here to worship,” she says. The woman is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. ” It’s crazy. »
The first readings from the laboratory of the police headquarters are “reassuring”
In the central kitchen of the Cherry Orchard, “we saw the flames from the parking lot this morning”, confides an employee. She works on the loading docks and has been disturbed all morning by the fumes. “We all breathed it in and then the smell…” For a moment she even breathes having taken “a Doliprane. My head was spinning, she says. I went to sit down for a bit. »
The company has fallen behind. With the sector sealed off, suppliers were unable to deliver the expected goods. “We are going to have a big day on Monday in reception production, underlines a manager of the company who delivers meals to nurseries, schools, homes, canteens and at home. But all of our customers will be delivered. We’ll do a double delivery on Monday. Then we will drag the production. »
Despite the significant smoke, the fire did not cause “difficulties on air or rail traffic”, specifies the spokesperson for the BSPP.
The police prefecture’s central laboratory was also deployed. “The first readings are reassuring on the subject, insists the BSPP spokesperson. This system was put in place following the fire at the Lubrizol factory (at Rouen). This makes it possible to measure the content and toxicity of the fumes, for possible risk zone or containment mapping. Here, this is not the case. »
The device lightened slowly in the middle of the day. “We went from 12 to 7 lances, details the representative of the firefighters. With earthmoving machinery always on site to access the heart of the cells. You have to break the metal curtain and the boxes are sometimes deep. They’ve been around all day “and we’ll be doing rounds all weekend.”
The origins of the accident are not yet known. An investigation will be opened to determine them.
Warehouse fires are fairly regular in the department. Last September, for example, a warehouse had been ravaged by flames in La Courneuve.
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