Heating occurred around 1:30 pm on a grain elevator in the material handling tower of an agricultural cooperative. Incandescent dust spread into the soil’s filter with handles and into the waste compartment. A 400-m safety perimeter was introduced; 10 homes, with their 34 residents, had to be evacuated along with the facility’s 6 employees. Traffic on the adjacent departmental highway was suspended. By 3:40 pm, fire-fighters had extinguished the blaze raging at a height of 40 m, using a nozzle with a variable flow rate connected to a dry riser. The extinction water caused a loss of electrical power supply to the site due to a lack of isolation. Fearing a fire smouldering inside a 600-tonne wheat storage cell, the emergency services performed hotspot controls by means of a heat camera combined with CO measurements. The intervention of emergency teams was completed by 6:45 pm and the safety perimeter lifted. Patrol rounds were scheduled every hour throughout the night. The installations were restored to working order the following morning, then the wheat storage cell was drained. No injuries were reported; the cost of property damage amounted to €12,000.

Mechanical friction on the upper part of the elevator (offset with respect to the axis) caused this accident. Subsequent to this incident, the operator adopted several measures, including: remodelling of all elevators, sealant of the cable routes entering the electrical control box, modification of the alarm configuration in the prevention plan, adoption of a specific training plan, and cleaning of the oil separator.