PICTURES. The five shocking images of the AZF explosion on September 21, 2001 in Toulouse – France 3 Régions

At 10:17 a.m. on September 21, 2001, the explosion of the AZF chemical plant, located in the southern suburbs of Toulouse, caused the biggest industrial accident since World War II. The stockpile of ammonium nitrate contained in hangar 221 exploded, killing 31 people and injuring 2,500 others.

September 21, 2001, 10:17 a.m.

At 10:17 a.m. on September 21, Michel Gaubert, an executive in an AZF design office, was finishing preparing for a meeting. “Suddenly, there was an explosion. She was underground, deaf, she shook the building to such an extent that the neon hubcaps in my office fell.“Then, second explosion.”Aerial, much louder than the first, accompanied by the noise of glass, falling partitions“. Michel Gaubert comes down, sees glass and bloodstains.”This is where people arriving from the north of the site told us that there was a large crater in the northern area of ​​the plant.“

A crater 70 meters in diameter

This September 21, 2001, Christophe Ghiani, firefighter, is part of the guard team of the Toulouse-Union Rescue Center. The team prepares its daily maneuver. 10:17 a.m., 20 years ago, a violent explosion threw them to the ground.

Arrived on the AZF site, Christophe Ghiani experiences a certain incomprehension. “We don’t have any more geographic landmarks. It is a company that we knew well because we maneuvered there very regularly. But there, there is a feeling of not recognizing the places. There is orange smoke that spreads above the site and very quickly, when you get to door A, a very large number of victims, who are more or less able-bodied.“.

The firefighter also remembers the strong impression felt around what had become of hangar 221 of the factory. “Initially, we work for the victims. We know there was an explosion but we don’t know where it took place.“The firefighter suspects that where it exploded, everything must be destroyed. The rescue teams are starting to organize themselves. And Christophe Ghiani realizes the presence of a huge mound of earth nearby.

“By reflex, we climb this mound of earth … and there, we discover a crater which is 70 meters in diameter. There, inevitably, we fully take the scale of the disaster. And we sit on the edge to try to digest the visual information we just received.“

The orange cloud

At 10:17 am, Colonel Christian Pizzocaro is in a meeting at the SDIS (Departmental Fire and Rescue Service) in Colomiers (31). “We hear a loud noise, the power of an airplane passing the sound barrier, but in a much lower octave. We feel that something abnormal has happened. There, I see all the numbers of 18 in red with calls that report explosions in the metro, Camif, in department stores, Social Security, etc.“

The head of the Haute-Garonne fire department has another scenario in mind. He climbs on the roof. “We had all made films, but mine was that a test plane had crashed because Airbus is not far from where we were. And it had happened before. Arrived there, I see this red plume which rises towards the sky in the south of Toulouse. And this is where I immediately understand that there was a major problem on the chemical site where AZF and SNPE, the Société Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs, were located.“

A landscape of war

Thirty-one person lost their life on September 21, 2001 and 2,500 injured were recorded from the perimeter of the AZF factory to the city center. The shock wave is incredibly violent. It was felt tens of kilometers around the epicenter.

This morning, Patricia is on annual leave. She has an appointment for her son at Rangueil hospital and the youngest of her boys does not attend school. All three arrive at the traffic light at the Tisséo roundabout, route d’Espagne, a few dozen meters from the AZF factory.

“A loud bang, a loud explosion crushed the car on us. It was horrible. Huge fear. My son didn’t speak for 3 hours. I see a landscape of war, the completely crushed cars, this yellow powder everywhere, the people bleeding, scared, prostrate and dumb. A few minutes later, people started to moan, in pain.“

A disfigured city center

For several kilometers around, the blast of the explosion caused considerable material damage.

On the morning of the disaster, Christine Belloc was an intensive care aide at Rangueil hospital. She felt a first shock when she went to lift a patient. “A few seconds later there was a second shaking and our feet rose off the ground“.

Christine Belloc hardly returns home around 7 p.m. “There was ash on Avenue de Muret. People were leaving, cars loaded. It was like the exodus. People were leaving their homes. It’s like it’s war … ” Once home, Christine Belloc remembers the walls of her house always straight. The windows are broken and the garage doors rolled up. “Up there, it was open to the sky, the ceilings were falling, the plasterboards were on the floor. But we were alive …“

The nurse will go to sleep with friends who recommend “not to stay there.“She closes the door of her house, is welcomed into their home.”So as not to be left alone and to be able to talk about it too. But again, the material, for me, was not important. Since we were fine“.

Find the entire series of testimonies collected during the 20 years of the anniversary of the explosion of the AZF factory.