At 10:45 am, a sugar refinery employee, in noticing smoke exiting the hangar iron, alerted by radio the facility managers. An emergency call was placed to notify internal fire-fighters. Smoke in the hangar disrupted access and complicated evaluation of the fire outbreak; no flame however was visible. Alfalfa pellets (in long strands) were stored on the hangar’s northern and southern panels. An inspection carried out from the walkway of a storage belt allowed localising the fire source around cladding on the south side underneath the walkway. Within 15 min, first responders had set up the fire nozzles and the blaze was being battled on two fronts: from the top of the walkway and from the ground. A sheet of cladding was removed from the ground to begin sprinkling the hotspots, then hangar cladding was removed in sheets 10 m wide by 3 m high, using a forklift and loader. The fire was brought under control around 11:15 am and the smoke dissipated. The wooden battens composing the storage wall behind the removed metal sheets were then removed in order to dispose of both the pellets in contact with the flames and wetted pellets. Fewer than 100 kg of pellets actually burned, but nearly 500 tonnes were damaged by wetting from the extinction water. One side of the silo ultimately had to be demolished for first responders to gain access. A small flame escaping from the combustion chamber through the blow-off duct when shutting down the D20 dryer initiated the slow combustion of alfalfa pellets having penetrated into the silo via a small hole. Property damage and operating losses were evaluated respectively at €20,000 and €75,000. A water spray was installed on the duct in order to ensure safe combustion chamber operations.