A safety valve on a lorry exploded on Monday afternoon on the Revatech site located on the Ehein industrial zone in Engis, the town spokesperson has announced. Liège fire services were called to Revatech at 1:40pm. Revatech specialises in the treatment of non-hazardous and hazardous industrial waste for recycling, recovery or disposal.
"The incident occurred on a lorry that had travelled from Antwerp," said Patrice Vanbrabant, in charge of emergency planning (Planu) for the municipality of Engis. "For some reason, there was a chemical reaction in the tank of the lorry. This would have raised the temperature enough to cause the safety valve at the rear of the lorry to pop."
There were no injuries and no damage to the company's infrastructure. As a precaution, however, the staff in the administration building were evacuated and only allowed to return to the site later in the day.
"Firefighters are currently dousing the lorry to keep the temperature down as much as possible. We have to wait until the chemical reaction has completely finished before being able to move any of the contents."
Firefighters were still on site just before 4:00pm.
(Source: Belga)
