Late Sunday morning, June 1, a fire broke out at the Biomasse Énergie d'Alizay (BEA) site in the Eure region, near Pont-de-l'Arche. The company, which specializes in the production of steam from plant waste, supplies energy to the VPK Alizay paper mill.
According to initial observations, the fire started on an external conveyor transporting wood chips, before spreading to an external wood storage area close to the main plant. Mechanical friction is believed to be the cause of the fire, said Nicolas Lebas, sub-prefect of Les Andelys, speaking on the radio France 3 Normandie .
Around 4,000 tonnes of wood were destroyed by the flames. No toxic products were consumed," adds the sub-prefect. BEA's biomass boiler and other technical installations were not damaged. Around 50 people were on site at the time of the incident, but fortunately there were no casualties.
A major intervention to bring the flames under control
The response mobilized 60 firefighters and 12 fire engines from the French departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS 27). The internal operations plan (POI) was immediately activated, enabling rescue operations to be coordinated with BEA management, the gendarmerie and local authorities, according to the Eure prefecture.
At 6 p.m., the disaster was " may be controlled and limited to the biomass outdoor storage area" and spread to nearby industrial facilities "avoided". The prefecture also specified that teams remained mobilized to monitor the site throughout the night. And in the morning of Monday June 2, firefighters were still on site, according to information from France 3 Normandie . A temporary suspension of activity on the site is not excluded.
The BEA site is not classified as Seveso. The incident, although spectacular, did not give rise to any containment or evacuation measures.
An industrial context already under strain
The mayor of Alizay, Arnaud Levitre, praised the responsiveness of the fire department and the coordination between BEA and VPK. He reminded the newspaper Paris-Normandie, that the former industrial site once housed a paper mill classified as Seveso high threshold, now converted to energy recovery. When contacted, VPK Alizay's management did not respond to our requests.
The incident occurred at a time when the BEA boiler is at the heart of a large-scale project called DEziR (Decarbonation en Seine-Eure et sur la zone industrielle de Rouen), led by Verso Energy. The project calls for the installation of a CO2 capture unit on the site at a cost of 1.3 billion euros, with a commissioning deadline of 2029.
This episode could rekindle the concerns already expressed by local residents. A few days before the fire, a group of local residents had organized a public meeting to denounce the nuisance caused by the activity on the Alizay industrial estate," recalls the group France 3 Normandie .
