At around 11 am inside a surface treatment shop, a container filled with 1,000 litres of sulphuric acid and stored on top of another container with 1,000 litres of nitric acid tipped over and ripped open. The fall caused the lower container to incline then to lose 2/3 of its contents (due to a leaky plug). Despite the presence of the retention basin, the acid mix (1 tonne of sulphuric acid and 0.3 tonnes of nitric acid) seeped into the shop and continued seeping outside the building towards the lot reserved for employee parking. Personnel evacuated the premises and all production operations ceased (both gas and electricity supplies were turned off). In order to neutralise the acids, employees spread lime onto the spills. A CMIC (Mobile Chemical Response Unit) removed the hazardous product to the outside and then poured sand on the acid-lime mix; next, the resultant composition (20 tonnes) was stirred and discharged to a site dedicated to collecting industrial waste. Around 3:30 pm, as the emergency response teams were leaving, the facility was started back up. No impact was recorded on the natural environment, as the spill had remained confined to the site. Poor placement of the lower container on its receiving pallet, coupled with the weight of the upper container, caused the bottom strut bar to break on the lower container. The two containers had been stored in this position for about a week. Moreover, the retention basin had only been designed (with walls roughly 30 cm high, pallet storage) to accommodate a single container; given the ill-advised storage conditions, this configuration partially reduced the basin’s efficiency. The Hazardous Installations Inspectorate made an appropriate record of these facts.