A fire of criminal origin (?) erupts at around 2am on a car parked at a petrol station in the town centre. Triggering a domino effect, the fire spreads to a stockpile of used tires 1 metre from the vehicle, followed by the explosion of 16 of 20 bottles of LPG, empty or full, (nominal capacity of 6 to 13.5 kg) contained in a case with wire mesh on 5 sides, standing against a room made of PVC, also 1 metre from the fire. A safety barrier is set up and some sixty residents are evacuated to a meeting hall as a precautionary measure. Fireman employ 5 combination nozzles to fight the fire and to keep the flames away from a second case of gas bottles stored 15 metres from the burned car. The fire is put out at around 6am; the debris is cleared and surveillance of the site is put into effect. One elderly person affected by the smoke is brought to hospital for testing. During the day, measures are taken to ensure the sites safety, i.e. pipes are degassed, and underground fuel tanks (buried under a 25-cm-thick concrete slab) are emptied and then filled with water.
The petrol station service and 3 adjacent apartments, including that of the manager, are destroyed; their occupants are taken in by family. Residence windows have been broken (explosion overpressure or projectile fragments) within a 25-metre radius around the station; hedges are scorched and paint has been burned and chipped due to the heat flow rate up to 25 metres from the station. Metal fragments were propelled a distance of around 200 metres; the stations exterior wall and its partition wall with the adjoining residence seem to have been an effective barrier for projectiles. The police force conducted an investigation in order to determine whether or not the accident was of criminal origin, and if so, to identify the guilty parties.
