At 7:50 am, a fire broke out on wooden crates containing parts to be painted (metal or polymer?), stored in the assembly workshop of a 15,500 m² plant manufacturing light fittings. The intervention of the employees with fire extinguishers did not control the fire. The staff were therefore evacuated, the gas and electricity were turned off and fire-fighters were alerted. An explosion occurred (gas pipe supplying radiant heaters?), rapidly spreading the fire to the workshop and the adjoining administrative offices. Despite water supply difficulties (insufficient network flow rate), around 60 fire-fighters controlled the fire at around 10 am; the emergency services had to set up a pumping unit in a water tank located 200 m from the location of the fire. The 6,000 m² assembly workshop and half of the offices were destroyed. The presence of 2-h fire doors and walls helped to limit the damage; the finished product and raw material storage rooms and the degreasing paint workshop were saved, but 134 employees were temporarily laid off. A proportion of the fire extinguishing water was contained on the site. The forensic examination carried out could not determine the cause of the fire. For the rebuilding operation, the operator plans to erect a reinforced concrete structure with 2-h self-stabilising fire walls especially between the offices and the workshop, smoke extraction sections and automatically opening smoke vents. A fire detection system, slaving the closing of the fire doors to this detection system and the installation of a first aid hose system in high-risk rooms are also planned.