Within a fireworks factory, fire spontaneously broke out inside a room housing 100 litres of aluminised sludge waste stemming from the washing water used for tanks that had contained a pyrotechnic formula (i.e. a barium nitrate and aluminium-based compound).

The factory watchman noticed the smoke rising inside the building and sounded the alarm.

This particular waste was being stored in 30-litre plastic buckets; they had dried and warmed due to the summertime heat.

Fire-fighters cooled the buckets. Due to the deteriorated condition of these buckets, the sludge had to be repacked into larger-sized containers. A chemical reaction initiated on one of the barrels caused heating coupled with a gaseous discharge. The barrel was sprayed continuously for several hours using a small nozzle until the contents could be stabilised.

The Internal Emergency Plan was activated.

Factory scheduling was revised in order to compress the amount of sludge storage time between the production and destruction steps by a subcontracted company. Periodic inspections served to verify the actual water evaporation levels, and the accessibility to operational machinery was improved. Experts stressed the underlying importance of training for both fire-fighters and response teams as well as the quality of information disseminated during onsite responses.