Damages of the Toulouse disaster, 21th september 2001

International audienceA terrible explosion of ammonium nitrate occurred on 21st September 2001, in Toulouse, in AZF plant belonging to Grande Paroisse Company, TotalFinaElf Group. The manufactured chemicals in the plant were mainly ammonium nitrate, ammonium nitrate-based fertilisers and other chemicals including chlorinated compounds. The explosion took place in a storage warehouse where roughly 400 tons of rejected off-spec materials were stored. The TNT equivalent mass of the explosion was estimated by INERIS in a range of 20 to 40 tons of TNT. The human effects of the explosion were 30 persons killed and up to 2242 people injured. The plant was located in the suburbs of Toulouse and the extent of damages was very large both on and off site with a cost estimated by insurers of 1.5 billion Euro. The first aim of this paper is to provide, outside France, information on the damages of this case history, with particular emphasis on estimates of the explosion strength's, on damages and human effects data, and on a few facts and lessons on the response to the effects and land use planning