Qualla: Ghislenghien disaster https://qualla.com/ghislenghien-disaster en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Ghislenghien disaster https://qualla.com/ghislenghien-disaster Ghislenghien disaster: Introduction https://qualla.com/ghislenghien-disaster/ Eddy Pettiaux was the fire chief of Ath. On the morning of 30 July 2004, he led his crew into the Ghislenghien industrial zone to deal with what dispatchers were calling a gas leak. It was the kind of call he had answered a hundred times. Forty minutes later, at 8:56 AM, the pipeline beneath him erupted. The fireball climbed nearly 100 metres into the sky, visible from fifteen kilometres away, and the ground shook for ten full minutes as far as Sirault. In south-eastern Brussels, residents of Uccle and Linkebeek heard the boom and looked up. Pettiaux was one of twenty-four people killed that morning. Most of them, like him, had run toward the danger.

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/b/ghislenghien-disaster-wp/u14b-ghislenghien-disaster-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ghislenghien disaster: A Scratch in the Pipe https://qualla.com/ghislenghien-disaster/ The Ghislenghien zoning is unremarkable - flat Hainaut farmland turned over to warehouses and light industry, twenty kilometres east of Tournai. Beneath it run two of the most important gas arteries in Western Europe: high-pressure Fluxys lines that move Norwegian gas through Zee...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/b/ghislenghien-disaster-wp/u14b-ghislenghien-disaster-a-scratch-in-the-pipe.mp3 0:06 2 full Ghislenghien disaster: 8:56 AM https://qualla.com/ghislenghien-disaster/ When the pipe gave way, it gave way completely. An eleven-metre section weighing several tonnes was hurled two hundred metres through the air. Heat radiated outward in a two-kilometre radius - close enough to melt electrical wiring inside buildings hundreds of metres away. Debris...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/b/ghislenghien-disaster-wp/u14b-ghislenghien-disaster-8-56-am.mp3 0:06 3 full Ghislenghien disaster: A Country in Mourning https://qualla.com/ghislenghien-disaster/ King Albert II broke off a state visit to Sweden and flew home that night to meet the families. Prince Laurent and Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt had already arrived. The five firefighters, the police officer, and the utility worker were given state funerals - an honour Belgium r...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/b/ghislenghien-disaster-wp/u14b-ghislenghien-disaster-a-country-in-mourning.mp3 0:06 4 full Ghislenghien disaster: What the Disaster Changed https://qualla.com/ghislenghien-disaster/ Ghislenghien rewrote how Belgium and France think about what is buried under their feet. A 2006 government order required new hazard studies and demanded that high-pressure pipelines be reinforced with HDPE plating in zones where construction equipment could reach them. France st...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/b/ghislenghien-disaster-wp/u14b-ghislenghien-disaster-what-the-disaster-changed.mp3 0:06 5 full Ghislenghien disaster: Visiting Ghislenghien https://qualla.com/ghislenghien-disaster/ The village of Ghislenghien itself, a small settlement in the municipality of Ath, gives little hint of what happened in the industrial zone on its outskirts. A memorial near the site honours the firefighters and other first responders by name. The surrounding countryside is clas...

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]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/4/b/ghislenghien-disaster-wp/u14b-ghislenghien-disaster-visiting-ghislenghien.mp3 0:06 6 full