In the shutdown rolling mill workshop of a metalwork plant, at 4.30 am during a surveillance round, a security guard noticed an outbreak of fire on the 5,000 l of oil contained in the pit of a 1,500 t hydraulic press. Unable to extinguish the fire using the foam extinguishers available, he alerted the public emergency services and the director of the establishment. The firefighters who also encountered difficulties in containing the fire with their foam concentrate had to wait for 1 1/2 hours for a truck containing a suitable foam concentrate to arrive on site. The intervention by the emergency services ended at around 9 am after the site had been returned to a safe state. The hydraulic press and the rolling mill were destroyed; the roof of the workshop was damaged. The fire extinguishing water contained in the pit and the water pumped throughout the extinguishing operations were disposed of by a specialist company. To avoid technical unemployment measures, the staff’s working hours were changed in order to operate certain presses in 3×8 instead of 2×8 shifts. A pump’s faulty electrical box caused the fire. The operator planned the installation of a fire detection system, acquired a foam concentrate storage used for tackling this type of fire and started a study on the possibility of substituting hydraulic oil with a self-extinguishable fluid. At the request of the inspection authorities for classified facilities, it also had to revise its alert procedure and provide a report on the accident.