A violent fire broke out around 10 pm in a semi-open packaging compaction room at a supermarket, spreading to a 2,000 sq.m. storage facility containing 10-m high racks. Notified by a night watchman, first responders deployed considerable resources: 90 fire-fighters and 25 vehicles were called in from 12 emergency response centres. Both of the storage facility’s cells quickly ignited; a (fuse-activated) door on the internal firewall stayed open, and the operator had neutralised the automatic sprinkler system due to freezing weather. Many explosions (aerosols, gas bottles, etc.) ensued. Wind conditions fanned the fire, which threatened the sales floor area; fire-fighters focused their efforts on the firewall between the store and the storage room and moreover requested that the operator place the automatic extinction system back into service. Activated by the smoke and hot gases that had infiltrated under the store’s roof, the sprinklers turned on. The combined action of fire-fighters’ nozzles and the automatic extinction system enabled containing the fire by 12:20 am. Since the risk of building collapse prevented fire-fighters from penetrating into the storage room to reach all of the various fire sources, extinction efforts continued from outside the building. Fully under control at 2:30 am, the fire would not be considered totally extinguished until 4 days later. According to the press, this incident may have been caused by malicious intent. The police conducted an investigation. The 2,000 sq.m. room was destroyed, but the supermarket’s sales area, the adjacent retail mall and peripheral premises (utility rooms, butcher shop, pastry shop, catering space) could be preserved.