On a Sunday at a handling facility for special industrial wastes, fire broke out in a 480-m² building that housed over 40 tonnes of waste, including: laboratory materials, neon tubes, empty paint jars, cans and barrels of solvents, acid containers, batteries, phytosanitary products, oil filters, phosphating sludge, and powders containing lead salts. Neighbours notified the on-call technician, who in turn alerted first responders. The blaze was brought under control after a 6-hour battle.
The building had collapsed and the hazardous waste inventory was destroyed, along with the operating vehicles and equipment inside the building. A road rig, parked at the outer facade, was also damaged, but its cistern of flammable liquids remained intact. Environmental consequences were minimal; the extinction water trapped in the building’s retention basin was discharged via an appropriate channel after analysis. The atmospheric pollution measurements recorded on-site did not indicate abnormal concentrations of products capable of placing the public at risk; occupants of the 300 nearby dwellings were nonetheless ordered to remain indoors as a precaution.
Malicious act was dismissed, and the electrical installations had recently been inspected. The building featured specialised cells to isolate incompatible products, and the product separation procedure had been respected. This accident occurred during a heat wave at the end of a weekend. The building ventilation had been very limited and during this idle period, no product movement triggered the fresh air intake. Moreover, the temperature inside this building with no heat protection could rise substantially, thereby favouring accident conditions.
Building reconstruction made it possible to improve both the prevention and protection measures: double-skin external cladding with heat insulation, mechanical ventilation servo-controlled to indoor temperature, fire detection and an automatic extinction system, and an electrical installation design extending to the hazardous waste storage zone.
