Fire broke out on a 200-tonne stockpile of ordinary wastes stemming from dumpsites in the reception area at the level of the household waste unloading platform at a non-hazardous waste incineration centre. The smouldering fire of wastes generated thick smoke that did not quickly disperse given the absence of wind.
An employee noticed the flames around 10 am upon entering the 3,000-m² storage zone and alerted the emergency services. Both operating furnaces were stopped. Fire-fighters, wearing self-breathing apparatuses, protected the installations and then ventilated the buildings by opening smoke removal hatches and busting “skydomes”, successfully extinguishing the fire by 9:50 pm using 3 variable flow nozzles. The extinction water was recovered in the site’s retention basin and treated by a subcontractor for an estimated €300,000. The installations were only slightly damaged, but the incinerator was stopped for 6 days and the wastes sent to other centres.
The storage of ordinary wastes on the unloading platform was prohibited. According to the operator, the centre had been overwhelmed by the influx of wastes on that day, necessitating their storage. Inspectors had already recorded this noncompliance tied to starting up a new activity that initially went undeclared by the operator, in addition to detecting strong dust emissions; moreover, the operator had already been issued an injunction dated 5th November, 2009 for lack of installation compliance.
The risks tied to waste storage on the platform were not analysed as part of the safety report. An emergency measure order prohibited the activity of storing Non-Hazardous Commercial and Industrial Waste on the platform without authorisation and conditioned restart of the furnace on satisfying the following requirements:
- restoration of site safe operating conditions and verification of the integrity of emergency resources;
- elimination of water recovered in the retention basin in order to return to the level enabling full use capacity;
- disposal of all wastes remaining on the unloading platform.
