Toulouse.20 years of AZF: By the way, what was this huge factory for?

Par Thibaut CalatayudPublié le
Actu Toulouse
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C’est la plus grande catastrophe industrielle de l’histoire moderne du pays. L’explosion de l’usine AZF, le 21 septembre 2001, a marqué plusieurs générations de Toulousains à tout jamais.Toulouse. 20 ans d'AZF : au fait, à quoi servait cette immense usine ? Toulouse. 20 ans d'AZF : au fait, à quoi servait cette immense usine ?

If today the pronunciation of these three letters only evokes this drama which cost the life of 31 people, it should not be forgotten that Zef was, in its kind, one of the most productive factories ofEurope.

An industrial site created in the 1920s

More than a simple chemical factory, this industrial site is an integral part of the economic history of Toulouse.

It was in the mid -1920s - after having recovered, in compensation for the Great War, the patent for manufacturing ammonia to Germany - that the State installs the ONIA (National Office of the Industry of the'nitrogen) south of the pink city.

An arrival that could have been done thanks to the involvement of two Toulouse socialist deputies: Albert Bedouce and Vincent Auriol, elected President of the Republic in 1947.Good news for employment but also for the pink city which will be able to develop around the site.

At the origin of the Papus city

Toulouse. 20 ans d'AZF : au fait, à quoi servait cette immense usine ?

It was at the end of the Second World War that the factory will launch a large HLM housing construction program.Buildings for workers and pavilions for executives are created: this is the beginning of the Papus city.

It is a real city in the city that is created around onia.For example, the works council of the factory notably pushed for the creation of the Gironis stadium to welcome the Multisport club of Toulouse Athletic Club (TAC).

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Production of fertilizers and chemicals

The ONIA factory-which will use up to 4,500 people in the 60s-is renamed APC then CDF chemistry-azf (for "nitrogen fertilizing"), SCGP and, since 1991, large parish.

The factory produced fertilizers and various chemicals from natural gas.The general environmental inspection report, available in free access to the public life platform, allows you to see the details of its production:

"The factory also produced various other chemicals: melamine (70 t/d for the manufacture of resins) for formalum, chlorinated derivatives, glues and resins and hardenses," adds the report.This productivity places it among the best factories on the continent.

Who was the factory at the time of the drama?

In 2001, 470 people were employed by the company Grande Paroisse, a subsidiary of the Total Final Elf, which held the factory.This occupied a field of 70 hectares.

But the history of this industrial site stopped this Friday, September 21, 2001, at 10:17 a.m., with a deafening explosion that made life for 31 people and caused more than 2,500 injured.

On October 31, 2017, the Paris Court of Appeal sentenced the former factory director, Serge Biechlin, to fifteen months suspended prison sentence and the Grande Parish company for a fine of 225,000 euros.The cassation appeal has not changed anything: Tuesday December 17, 2019, the Court confirmed the 2017 judgment.The end of a long judicial soap opera.

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