In a recycling plant for end-of-life vehicles (ELV), fire broke out around 4 pm on a car being decontaminated in premises adjacent to a building with offices and storage of spare parts and tyres. An employee had just perforated the plastic fuel tank with an air drill and walked away in search of an additional container when the petrol caught fire for an unexplained reason. Despite the efforts of this employee and the site manager with several fire extinguishers, the fire spread and engulfed the 1,000-m² building. Road traffic on the RD 904 was stopped in both directions. Fire-fighters had the fire under control within two hours using three 500 litre/min variable flow water cannons. Two employees, one in a state of shock the other slightly burned, and a fireman intoxicated by the fumes were taken to hospital; a second fire-fighter was administered treatment onsite. The extinction water was confined to the site by closing the shut-off valve to the stormwater drainage system. The storage of fluids (petrol, oil, coolant) and battery trays were removed from the flames. No soil or water pollution was observed. The emergency services set up surveillance during the night; their intervention ended the next morning around 9 am. The operator was seeking solutions to reduce risks during ELV clean-up, especially when draining fuel. The 7 employees in the establishment had to be temporarily laid off.