Several weeks before the explosion, during construction of a factory in the Ghislenghien industrial zone, a piece of heavy equipment scratched a Fluxys high-pressure gas pipeline.
At 8:56 AM on 30 July 2004, while firefighters and Electrabel technicians were working to repair the leak, the pipeline exploded, following an increase of pressure in the pipe.
[citation needed] The sound from the explosion was heard in numerous neighborhoods of south-eastern Brussels (Uccle, Linkebeek, Watermael).
Among the deceased were 5 members of the Fire Department of Ath (including the chief, Eddy Pettiaux[1]) and police officer[2] Pierre Dubois.
[citation needed] A trial, aimed at establishing responsibility for the disaster, ran from 15 June 2009, to 22 February 2010, at the Court in Tournai.
Eleven of the fourteen defendants were acquitted, including the municipality of Ath, Fluxys, and Husqvarna, the sponsor of the factory construction project.
By 2014, this led to the creation of emergency zones, which replaced regional fire services, which were previously under local control.