At around 9:20 pm a fire set alight the 700 m² administrative premises of a factory manufacturing laminated wood furniture. The emergency services identified 2 risks of the fire spreading: into an adjacent production area through a concrete block wall with conventionally designed glass doors and to a semi-trailer parked along a loading dock. The 6,000 m² production area that stored the machines, gas bottles, stocks of wood and glue, was not partitioned and did not have any fire walls. It was rapidly engulfed in smoke and hot gases.

The police stopped the traffic on RN 911. Inadequate and unsuitable smoke removal systems (few vents, controls not working properly, no sections) forced the emergency services to drill 3 additional vents to prevent any risk of flash-over. At 11 pm, the 63 fire-fighters mobilised had contained the fire in the administrative premises by staging a major hydraulic operation (9 variable flow hoses, 2 fire engines, 1 pump unit and 1 tanker lorry). The number of residual fires discovered using a thermal imaging camera and the threats of structures collapsing led the emergency services to continue monitoring the site for 5 hours. A worker was slightly injured and a first aider suffered from smoke inhalation; half of the 80 employees were temporarily laid off for 15 days. The intervention teams encountered water supply difficulties: loss of flow rate at a 32 m³/h fire hydrant used simultaneously with a 48 m³/h suction sump, and low water level in the company’s fire extinguishing water tank supplying the first aid hose system and the fire engines (torn waterproof tank lining).