In a wood panel manufacturing plant, a fire broke out on a stock of 1,200 tons of chips measuring 400 m long, 30 m wide and 15 m high. Wood waste, stored in bulk in a container, was used to supply the boiler. Unable to reach the heart of the fire, roughly twenty firefighters contained the fire using the company’s fire system. The employees created a passageway in the mountain of chips using an excavator and, using a steel ram, spread it out to prevent it from collapsing. Five tonnes of waste were partially burned then disposed of in the boiler. The accident was caused by the self-ignition of chips resulting from fermentation. The fire had no repercussions on the production.