Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

In a classified plant manufacturing wood windows and shutters, fire broke out inside the suction circuit for machined cuttings. During this process, the chippings were to be centralised, sorted by a cyclofilter and stored in silos prior to being fed into a boiler. At 11:30 am on the day of the accident, workers detected a burnt smell in a workshop, shut down the machines and inspected them, but observed no anomaly and continued with their tasks. The workshop manager, who had been absent in the morning, also noticed the odour upon his return at 11:40 and turned off the suction system. According to the site operator, this manoeuvre triggered the opening of one of the inspection hatches on the pipe, into which a few embers fell. The alarm was activated and local fire-fighters alerted. Two employees, equipped with a fire hose, sprinkled the interior part of the suction pipe from the hatch, actuated the spraying ramp on the cyclofilter and controlled the blaze. Upon their arrival, first responders cut off the electrical power supply, set up a 100-m safety perimeter, evacuated 115 employees and performed surveying with a heat-sensitive camera. They detected a number of hotspots over the lower part of the cyclofilter not covered by the spraying ramp; residual fire sources were extinguished by a nozzle introduced via one of the hatches. The factory could resume its activity the next day. According to the Inspection authorities for classified facilities, the use of an overly thick wood caused excessive friction on a cutting disc, which in turn generated hotspots on the machined cuttings. The operator implemented a fire training review programme for employees and assessed the feasibility of installing spark sensors on the suction circuit.