Paris.- A fire this Sunday at an industrial facility near the city of Gandrange, in northeastern France, led to the confinement for several hours of the inhabitants of five nearby municipalities, about 30,000 people in total.
The Prefecture of the Moselle department explained in a statement, in which it described the situation at 12:30 local time (10:30 GMT), that the fire was burning a 500-square-meter warehouse belonging to the company Safe.
These are facilities classified as Seveso due to the risk of accidents from the products used in their activity, although with a low threshold.
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From the outside, a dense column of very dark smoke was visible coming from the Société des Aciers Fins de l’Est (SAFE) complex, located about twenty kilometers north of Metz and about 80 from Luxembourg.
The Government delegation indicated that “as a precautionary measure” it had urged the inhabitants of Gandrange, Amnéville, Vitry sur Orne, Clouange and Rombas to confine themselves and to remain sheltered
After a little over four hours, the Prefecture indicated to the affected inhabitants, in an alert sent to their mobile phones, that they could leave their homes if necessary and that the fire was “controlled”.
