At noon on Sunday, a pile of 150 m³ of waste ignited inside the handling station (load transfer platform) of a storage and treatment centre dedicated to household waste and non-hazardous industrial waste. Employees quickly detected the onset of fire and contacted management, which instructed them to isolate the source in using a shovel with a grab in order to proceed with sprinkling.

The personnel implemented 2 water cannons and the unloading platform spraying system, but the site manager noticed after 20 min of efforts that the fire source had extended and was producing lots of smoke. He alerted the fire department, which arrived at the scene with considerable resources (a crew of 47 men, 10 vehicles, 6 large nozzles and a foam cannon) to gradually sprinkle the wastes while removing them with a shovel. The fire was brought under control at 5:30 pm and the wetted wastes were isolated on the platform.

According to the operator, no victims or environmental damage resulted from the incident. Out of the 500 m³ of water used to fight the fire, 100 m³ remained confined on the platform while the other 400 m³ were absorbed by the wastes. The confined water was then pumped and drained by the operator into the leachate basin, for ultimate treatment in the site’s vacuum evaporator.

From then on, the operator was required to limit the quantities of wastes present on the load transfer platform during the weekend and, at the request of emergency services, to redesign its water supply network.