French Minister Elisabeth Borne unveils action plan.
On 11 February 2020, 138 days after the Lubrizol fire, the Minister for Ecological and Solidarity Transition announced the French government's action plan.
The action plan establishes three main priorities for better anticipation and management of industrial risks at classified facilities. It aims to provide a response to each problem that arose during the Lubrizol and Normandie Logistique fires.
Axis 1 - Strengthen transparency on the management and consequences of industrial accidents.
Axis 2 - Strengthen fire prevention.
Axis 3 - Strengthen the means of control and investigation of industrial risks.
In terms of fire prevention, the following measures are recommended:
- Review compartmentalisation measures, the layout of product storage and the design of retention tanks;
- Systematically inspect all classified installations within a 100 m radius of Seveso sites, in particular establishments subject to the declaration regime or those that have been grandfathered;
- Identify upstream sufficient capacities of extinguishing water and foam to ensure that the fire brigade has access to it rapidly in the event of a fire;
- Impose drills once a year for all Seveso high threshold sites.
Read about the Lubrizol fire in the March 2020 issue of Fire & Security Alert Magazine!
