Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

Around 9 pm in a stationery storage room, fire broke out on a 25-m³ pile of paper strips (torn during drying and ready for recycling) and quickly spread to a storage area containing 150 tonnes of discarded spools. The room was adjacent to a finished product storage building, where the fire had reached the first bay of commercially viable spools (for white paper and Kraft paper). Notified by a technician, in-house first responders activated the internal emergency plan. In accordance with emergency procedures, they deployed 4 fire hoses and turned on the sprinkler system over the first storage bay, which enabled them to quickly contain the blaze raging in the finished products hangar. However, the gas cartridge triggering opening of smoke exhaust domes malfunctioned. To complete the still latent combustion in the discarded spools, backup fire-fighters had to keep battling until 6:30 am. Once these defence measures were launched, the operator had all plant discharge (2500 m³) rerouted (including the 400 m³ of extinction water collected) to a 5000-m³ basin for subsequent inspection. Property damage was estimated at €50,000 (deteriorated cladding, defective smoke removal device, etc.). Operating losses were estimated at €750,000; moreover, 40 tonnes of commercially viable spools were destroyed by the fire, while another 1500 tonnes were degraded by sprinkler spraying. According to the operator, this fire may have been due to a forklift (friction, electrical or mechanical anomaly) or to a smouldering cigarette, even though it was prohibited to smoke on premises where the accident occurred. The Inspection Authorities for Classified Facilities proposed that the operator examine the physical storage conditions of the torn strips and discarded spools, focusing on rules for positioning, circulation, cleanliness of premises and smoking ban compliance. Authorities also asked the operator to: analyse the positioning and fire resistance of the smoke removal cases that had malfunctioned and verify their operations and testing frequency.