On a Sunday around 11 pm, fire broke out in the paraffining workshop at a paper/polyethylene (PE) packaging plant. Flames reached the paraffin block pallets, which in liquefying helped spread flames to a 2,000 m³ zone of raw materials storage; 800 tonnes of paper spools and 100 tonnes of PE reels were destroyed. Located amidst the salt marshes, this plant was undergoing restructuring and was closed for the weekend. The fire detection alert was relayed to the remote monitoring firm, which in turn notified fire-fighters; by the time they arrived, the fire had covered 3,000 m³ and the building’s metal frame had collapsed. Road traffic was halted in the vicinity of the plant. First responders encountered difficulties accessing the inflamed zone and tapping the water supply: the site’s water reserve was not yet operational, and water height in the marshes was insufficient for the fire trucks (due to low tide); moreover, the site’s fire hydrant was not in working order. The fire was brought under control in 4 hours using a foam gun and 10 nozzles.
Heavy smoke injured 3 fire-fighters. Extinction water flowed into the internal stormwater network or an onsite retention basin. Connected to a channel with no recorded pollution, the stormwater system was nonetheless plugged on 19th September around 2 pm. This extinction water was rerouted to the municipal drainage network. Fire-fighters plunged into the tanks paper spools to extinguish all residual sources. Due to destruction of the raw material stockpile and machinery damaged by extinction water, 100 employees had to be laid off. Fire also damaged the walls and roof of an adjoining biscuit factory. Carried by the wind, soot fell back to the ground over several hectares of salt marsh contaminating 40 tonnes of salt.
The accident took place on an electrical transformer and/or paraffin melting machines, which had tripped automatically on Sunday at 10 pm. The operator proceeded by relocating the finished products storage zone, installing the paraffining workshop in new premises (equipped with 2-hour fire walls, fire detectors, melting machines set up over retention basins), storing paraffin pallets outside, segmenting and sprinkling the indoor storage zones, improving building access, placing the entire site over a retention facility, redesigning the water catchment basin, and modifying the stormwater network configuration (with plugs, hydrocarbon separators). Lastly, electrical installations were to be inspected annually by means of thermography.
