Shadow Dragon

Florange Blast Furnaces

October 2023 | France | Demolition Ongoing

One of my bucket list sites to explore! I have visited this place twice, first time in October 2023 when I explored this section of the site and the Steelworks. However, I missed the Continuous Casting Plant and I’m glad to say that in my second explore in April of 2024 with Forbidden3dom, I saw it. And my oh my was I not disappointed.

History:

Florange is a French commune, situated a few miles west of the large town of Thionville in the Moselle department of the Grand-Est region of France. It is home to an industrial behemoth that now sits silent and slowly rusting. That behemoth consists of many things: blast furnaces, steelworks, steel mills, a coke works etc. You get the picture: it’s enormous!

The late 19th century brought about massive demand for the production of iron and steel. Places rich in iron ore were in abundance in the Grand-Est region, and steel and iron smelting plants were being built everywhere. The site at Florange is an example of that. The first blast furnaces were built in 1906 next to the Chateau de Wendel (the house of the owners) and the Bureau Centrale – the central office buildings for the De Wendel steel business, which are themselves abandoned today. Later in the 20th century, the enormous continuous casting plant and steel works was built on a site adjacent to the blast furnaces.

Over the span of the site’s operation, six blast furnaces were built. Three were modernised and had their smelting capacities increased, whereas the other three were decommissioned and demolished. The enormous structures we see today are P3, P4 and P6 blast furnaces. P4 is in an advanced state of decay, having been mothballed in the 1990s from what I can ascertain. Not many of the original 1900s buildings remain, but the largest one to have survived is the 1,000ft long brick and iron hall to the south of the blast furnaces. This is the blower house and former power station and still has three Sulzer turbo blowers in it to this day. However, the generating equipment was removed many years ago which is a crying shame. Power was generated on the steel works site right up until 1955, when a large scale power generation complex was commissioned at Richemont, a few miles away. Richmont Power Station was capable of firing a multitude of fuels: primarily the waste gases from the many nearby blast furnace complexes, coal and finally diesel. It had three units. The power station closed in 2009 after the closure of many of the blast furnaces in the surrounding area, and it was subsequently demolished. Ownership of the Florange site passed through many hands, until it finally became the property of the ArcelorMittal steelmaking company. At its height, the site employed around 2,100 people. However in 2012, the blast furnaces were shut down which sparked enormous protests from the employees and surrounding area. ArcelorMittal insisted the closure was temporary and that they were reopen when market conditions improved. However in 2018, it was confirmed that the blast furnaces would not be restarted at all. In April 2023, ArcelorMittal sold the site to Henry-Invest for €500,000. The site is currently being demolished.

The Explore:

I woke up really early on the morning of the explore. I didn’t know what to expect, having read that this place has next level security who whizz around the site at a million miles an hour, and also that it has sensors and CCTV everywhere. So I began my short journey to the steel works with trepidation.

After trekking to the access point, I was genuinely quite nervous. I may be fluent in French (I grew up in France) but even so I did not want to incur the wrath of French security guards and police as a foreigner. But I needn’t have worried at all. Once I found my way into the steel works site, I heard security maybe once but that was it. The explore was one of the most relaxed and chilled out I have ever been on. I spent about 12 hours on the site – I didn’t do P4 as it has alarms in the pouring hall. Everything was so big and just seemed to stretch on and on for miles and miles. Everywhere was chock full of walkways and catwalks that gave breath taking views of everything. I can safely say this was one of my favourite explores ever, the site was unparalleled to me! Anyway… enjoy the photos!

Exteriors and Infrastructure: