A fire broke out at 1 pm in a dryer at a plastic and wooden pallet production and maintenance plant. The plant is situated in a 11,000 m² building with a single-storey metal structure ; a brick fire wall with 2 h fire resistance separate the workshops and storage areas from the 1,000 m² of administrative offices. The building was also occupied by a transport company and a company that stores wine bottles. Fire-fighters noted upon arrival at 1.10 pm that the fire, fanned by the wind and fed by a large quantity of wood and plastic, 500 l of water-based paint and a few forklift truck gas cylinders, had spread to most of the building. As the first houses were located less than 10 m from the site, 300 residents were evacuated due to the large plume of smoke released with a high CO content. Gas and electricity services secured the site. After 2:10 pm, the magnitude of the damage caused the building to gradually collapse, but the inadequate fire-fighting system meant that the fire-fighters could only use 11 nozzles, 4 of which were used to protect an outside pallet storage area and houses. At 3:30 pm, the emergency services removed the computer equipment and archives shortly before the flames spread to the offices. Also hindered by the absence of layout plans, it took the 80 fire-fighters present until 4:20 pm to bring the fire under control; the extinguishing of residual fires continued into the afternoon of the next day. The fire extinguishing water entered the municipal network. Two people were hospitalised for a few hours for CO inhalation; 130 people were rehoused by the municipality for the night. 90 % of the building was damaged and 5,000 pallets burned but the main management tools and most of the 40,000 pallets stored outside were saved, which enabled the 30 employees to resume their work the next day. The environmental inspection authorities reported that the storage of wooden pallets was significantly higher than declared by the operator and therefore that the activity should have been subject to an administrative permit. The inspection authorities recommended that the local government authority make the resumption of operations subject to the operator submitting a new declaration or to the granting of an authorisation according to the quantity of pallets actually stored.