AZF: Twelve Years After

This panorama shows a dull looking place now. Yet, that is exactly where at 10:17 on the morning of 21 September 2001, a huge blast crossed the road, about 100 meters from where it all started. The explosion instantly killed about 30 persons and devastated thousands of housings in a fifteen mile radius. The AZF and several others smaller factories around it have been of course destroyed.

The blast was equivalent to 20-40 tons of TNT, measuring 3.4 on the Richter scale, and was heard 80 km away (50 miles).

Rain has filled up the oval crater from the blast during the last twelve years and a little natural park seems to be preserved around it: this is an exception as everything in a 6 square kilometer area has been removed, the soil has been cleaned up from pollution or replaced. The "Oncopôle" has been created and constructed to provide new means to more than 4000 people including 2400 scientists whom will research on Cancer.

I had shot a panorama exactly at this same place, three weeks after the tragedy: http://michel.thoby.free.fr/AZF%202001/AZF.html

Reaching a bit closer, several digital images were shot with a longer lens to make a wide-angle HD image of the debris: http://michel.thoby.free.fr/AZF/PanoAZF2.jpg

Europe / France

Lat: 43° 34' 2.99" N
Long: 1° 25' 28.64" E

Elevation: 389 m

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Unknown / Undeclared.

Manfrotto 190B tripod with a home made center 1 m long mast.

Slim Rotator Precise (four shots) and "Extended" NN R-10.

EOS 5D MkII

EF 8-15 mm @ 12 mm