Fire broke out in a used tyre recycling company on a 1,800sq.m stockpile (containing between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes of tyres). Fire-fighters arrived around midnight; 20% of stockpile surface area was already ablaze. Since no water source was available nearby, fire-fighters could only begin battling the blaze 1 hour after arrival (fire hydrants were located as far as 1.5 km from the outbreak); at that point, 50% of the stockpile surface area had ignited. The fire had become generalised. During the night, fire-fighters acted to protect another adjacent stockpile of crushed tyres. They also spread and sprinkled the ignited parts, but the efficiency of these actions was limited by the relatively inaccessible surface area. Extinction time was estimated to last 5 days. Fire-fighters were required to hook up to the municipal water supply network, which entailed shutting down drinking water distribution to the entire town. The public works department planned on hooking up to an alternative network or introducing a bottled water distribution programme. The heavy and thick smoke was visible from the area’s well-travelled major roads and highways. Strong westerly winds blew the smoke towards an agricultural zone. No residences were located in the site’s vicinity, except along the road D165 (some 40 dwellings within a 500-m radius).

The fire extinction water flowed over the site’s impermeable ground surface until reaching the road D165where it was collected in the municipal drainage network until reaching a lifting basin and then channelled into the wastewater network. The next day, 2 lifting vehicles removed the tyres to enable cooling the unburnt stock, but smoke remained thick. On 25th December, a portion of the storage was transferred for spreading, with the risk no longer existing of fire spreading to the adjoining building. On the 26th, the hydraulic system deployed was scaled back and the task of clearing began. On the 27th, the thermal camera indicated the presence of many residual fire sources. The next day, 3 nozzles were still in operation. The fire was considered extinguished on the 29th; only a few hotspots still persisting on the 30th were definitively extinguished on the 31st. During an inspection conducted in June 2004, the Classified Facilities Inspectorate had observed several compliance failures that had not been corrected by the time of a subsequent inspection on 24th November, 2004. At this time, the Inspectorate informed the operator it would be proposing that the Prefect consign a sum of €21,000. In a correspondence dated 2nd May, 2005, the operator notified the Inspectorate that works were underway to remedy the cited compliance failures.