Around 5:45 pm, a thunderstorm caused both immediate and deferred damage inside a plastics plant. Operators reported a momentary loss of electrical power, followed by down telephone lines running through the switchboard, along with the destruction of 3 parking surveillance cameras. Later on about 4:45 am, an alarm indicated a lack of water serving the workshops at 1.5 bar. A single reactor at the time was performing polymerisation; the system shut down the monomer and catalyst injections, and the temperature that was stable at first then started to slowly decrease. A still that had been operating in a workshop on a cooling tower circuit was able to finish its distillation process. All the devices were thus turned off. According to analysis, the lack of water was caused by shutting down the water tower supply pumps during the thunderstorm; the system to alert the operating company of a low water level malfunctioned due to a lack of electrical power and the fact that the industrial zone consumed the total volume available from the water tower between 5:45 pm and 4:45 am. Restoring the zone’s water network occurred gradually and water pressure was reset around 9 am. The incident, which exerted no impact on the environment, did however place the company in a position of highly-compromised safety.

The inspection required the operator to conduct a safety analysis of all facility operations. This analysis and the associated conditions were then expected to be integrated into the study of site hazards.