In a “Seveso”-classified hazardous installation, two explosions and the release of reddish smoke took place around 11:00 am during the casting of molten iron using a 450-tonne drum ladle wagon in a ditch at ground level. The technician stopped the spill. This casting step had been approved following detection of a flaw right at the wagon spout, which blocked normal transfer of the cast iron into straight ladles. Notified by numerous phone calls, fire-fighters advised onsite personnel on how to seek containment. No one was injured given that the casting control station was protected (bunker style) and a safety perimeter had been permanently marked off around the ditches. Water / molten metal contact was responsible for the accident; the excessively quick casting operation confined humidity from the tailings that composed the ditch bottom and caused the vapour to explode. The casting of residual 250-tonne loads, performed without incident around 12:30 pm, would nonetheless produce another reddish plume.