A fire broke out in a textile recycling plant. The plant included a 2,000 m² textile material and cloth fraying and powdering unit (93 t/d) and a 10,500 m³ (2,000 t) textile and cloth storage warehouse. At around 2:30 pm, the company’s caretaker, who lived on site, was woken up by a fire alarm. He noted the presence of large amounts of smoke in the production building and alerted the fire-fighters. The fire spread through the electric cables. The extent of the fire was limited by the small amount of combustible material (only in the production area and not in the storage unit). Several main fires appeared inside the building. The fire was contained at around 4:45 pm and was extinguished at 6:20 pm.

The production plant was damaged. The building did not appear to be affected, and only a few windows and clear screens were broken. The building’s electrical system was destroyed by the fire and fire extinguishing water. Some of the metal parts of the production equipment were deformed by the heat. The company was not in operation at the time of the fire, and no company staff were present on the site.

The fire was caused by a hot spot on a lapper on one of the fraying machines. A metal foreign body may have heated up on a drive roller without harming the moving fibres while the fraying line was operating. However, when the installation was stopped, this heating could have resulted in the slow burning of the stationary textile fibres contained in the lapper. With no staff present, the fire may then have spread into the building via the electric wiring. There was a previous outbreak of fire at this company on 01 April 2004 (Aria no. 26844).