A small electrical fire broke out inside the engine of a lorry transporting 18.5 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, packaged into 510 polyethylene bags and intended for explosives manufacturing. The vehicle’s cabling proved to be faulty. The fire reached the lorry’s trailer, where 7 tonnes of ammonium nitrate melted and spilled onto the road over a distance of 110 m. More than ten minutes after the fire broke out, the load being hauled exploded, killing the lorry driver and 2 neighbours in the vicinity who had shown up to offer assistance. Their bodies were thrown some 30 m. Lorry debris could be found as far as 2 km from the scene. A crater 10 m in diameter and 1 m deep was formed. This explosion could be explained by the liquefied state of the nitrate and its contamination by the carbon black generated from combustion of the lorry’s tyres.