On the Marchiennes side the situation was growing worse every day. All the fires were out the Gagebois glass works, men were continually being sent away from the Sonneville workshops, only one of the three blast furnaces of the Forges was alight, and not one battery of coke ovens was burning on the horizon.
Du côté de Marchiennes, la situation s'aggravait chaque jour: tous les feux éteints a la verrerie Gagebois, des renvois continuels aux ateliers de construction Sonneville, un seul des trois hauts fourneaux des Forges allumé, pas une batterie des fours a coke ne brulant a l'horizon.