A violent fire occurred on a Saturday morning (8h40) in the paint-store of 1000 m³ semi-opened warehouse. A former, drug-addict employee of the company crawled into the warehouse on rest-day ; after inhalation of thinner vapours, he became stuporous and lighted a cigarette. The flammable vapours lighted instantaneously and the fire spread rapidly to the whole warehouse storing 23 t of flammable, highly flammable and/or toxic materials (paints thinners, white spirit, toluene, xylene, glue…) in different containers. The man shouted for help, but by the time the watcher came back with the key of the portal, the intense heat could not allow any approach to the building. At the same time, the fire detection of the warehouse triggered and contacted the local fire-station. Calls from residents were also received shortly after, mentioning huge smoke and 10 m high flames.

A massive intervention was launched to extinguish the blaze and protect the other buildings : 36 fire-engine and 143 firemen fought the fire in turns, for more than 9 hours. The firefighters encountered difficulties as no information was available on the involved products. Huge quantities of extinguishing materials had to be brought up to the site : 33 m3 of foaming material, 5 t of powder and 3.5 million litre of water were used. The extinction waters were collected in a nearby water treatment station, thus preventing the pollution of the Danube river. 17 elderly persons were evacuated from nearby residential houses. Had the meteorological conditions worsen, 5 000 residents would have had to be evacuated within 700 m. The major road No. 6 was closed for 1.5 hours because of heavy smoke. 10 firemen suffered burn injuries and the arsonist died. The operator strengthened its surveillance and safety.