During mid-afternoon, during an annual maintenance service, a specialised landscaping company was mowing and clearing brush from bund walls and around the periphery of munition factory installations. This type of service was being performed while the site’s pyrotechnic activities were completely shut down. Fire broke out when the fuel-powered motor of a brush cutter was carried into the compound’s fenced enclosure started up. The blaze quickly spread to the surrounding vegetation. Unable to communicate with any site personnel, a maintenance worker addressed the guard’s station to sound the alarm; the on-site fire-fighter arrived at the scene and requested backup. Two “forest fire cistern” type of lorries served as reinforcement for the site’s emergency vehicle, and the fire could be extinguished, but not before destroying 500 m² of vegetation along the edge of buildings at one of the manufacturing facilities, as well as 2 brush cutters used by the landscaping firm. Moreover, exterior cables offering boundary protection were damaged. A prevention plan had been implemented prior to this maintenance work order. The site operator’s analysis pointed to a physical malfunction of one of the machines being operated. A number of measures were adopted, including: requesting a hot work permit for this type of activity, which would schedule the availability of competent on-site personnel and all necessary equipment like cisterns, extinguishers and a radio hook-up.