Shortly before 3:30 pm, a gas leak began to burn on a 100 cu.m propane tank inside a cereal silo. Following maintenance operations, the gassing (restoration of gas) was underway (11 cu.m had been transferred) when an explosion in the storage capacity caused a flare fire (flames shooting several meters) on the upper part of the manhole flange. Some 55 fire-fighters arrived at the scene, along with specialists from the company owning the cistern. The fire crew installed protective water curtains, yet experienced water supply constraints. The tank’s stationary cooling system was also difficult to activate, as the hook-up was located beneath the tank: the stationary sprinkling line was not connected to the network. Fire-fighters completed their set-up with a long-range nozzle. The site’s electricity supply was cut. As a precaution, first responders evacuated the middle school 200 m away as well as local population (between 3,000 and 5,000 residents according to responders) within a 500-m radius. Traffic was closed on the RD 924 highway and reserved for emergency rescue vehicles. The strategy adopted consisted of allowing the gases escaping from the tank to burn (estimated flow rate: 400 kg/hr) while maintaining tank cooling. The fire was extinguished once the gases had finished their combustion around 8 pm. The storage capacity was made inert with water during the evening. The emergency monitoring system was lifted around 10:30 pm: neighbours were permitted to return home and traffic was authorised. According to initial investigation findings, the restoration of gas had been performed by flaring: in this case, LPG filling the tank had pushed the air/gas vapour mix towards the racking pipe in a gaseous phase connected to the flare. A procedure had been adopted to oversee execution of this operation. The incident occurred while the flare was being lit by a maintenance company technician.