A fire broke out around 1 pm on a 500-m³ pile of green wastes (compost) at a household waste recycling and storage centre. A violent gust fanned the flames, which threatened the 20,000-m³ capacity sorting building and the site’s vicinity (which included a school and a designated NATURA 2000 zone). A thick black plume of smoke was visible for tens of kilometres around. A response involving 92 fire-fighters and 17 tanker lorries, backed up by teams from the nearby air force base, protected the sorting building and extinguished the blaze by around 6 pm.

Upon instruction of emergency services, neighbours (including a school) were confined indoors because the smoke was considered to be more unpleasant than it was actually toxic (burning vegetation). Nonetheless, the army decided to evacuate one of its facilities in the area. The next day, the operator proceeded by clearing the mound of waste that had burned. Responders continued to monitor throughout the night and performed reconnaissance missions every 4 hours over the next 5 days, as the waste was capable of burning for several more weeks, as demonstrated during a previous fire several years prior. One employee and 1 fire-fighter were slightly injured during the response. Over 100,000 m³ of waste were burned, and 2 ha of undergrowth and pine forest were destroyed.

A shock on an abandoned maritime distress flare left by accident in the pile of green waste caused the outbreak of this fire.