A fire broke out in a company manufacturing plastic profiles, pipes, sheets and plates. Some glue had spontaneously ignited in a drying oven. The fire spread to the glueing booth. The flames melted the undersides of the roof openings. The combustion of PVC and polyurethane plastics released large amounts of smoke. The manufacturing team extinguished the fire before the arrival of the fire-fighters using fire extinguishers and first aid hose systems. The smoke extraction vents were opened to ventilate the 14,000 m² building.

Only a small amount of product had burned : one PVC plate, one polyurethane plate, and some plastic. As a precaution, the solid residues from the fire were removed by 2 specialist companies and taken to approved disposal sites. The 2 m³ of water needed to fight the fire flowed into the waste-water network leading to the treatment plant. The spark from a heating element that failed had without doubt caused the fire. The 8 glue guns, and the air and glue supply needed to be changed. The electrical circuits were damaged. Manufacturing was stopped for 3 days, and the cost of repairing the equipment was estimated at €10,000.

To reduce the likelihood of such an event recurring, the operator plans to implement the ATEX procedure immediately in order to define the high-risk areas, and corrective actions for compliance with the regulations (procedure carried out concurrently with the updating of the authorisation file), the installation of a system for manual opening of the smoke extraction vents, improvement of the position of fire extinguishers around the facility, and the addition of personal masks. The drum of glue for production and the drum of head-cleaning solvent must also be moved away from the installation. The emergency response system in the event of incidents will be improved through a more clearly defined distribution of tasks amongst the emergency response team.