Fire broke out at roughly 8:45 am below the emptying hatch on a silo dryer, while the facility was being inspected before restarting the drying cycle. On the previous day around 5 pm, a temperature probe had placed this dryer in safety mode (heating cycle set at 50°C for a safety activation temperature of 70°C). In accordance with the fire procedure, personnel switched off gas and electricity supplies, drained the sunflower seeds via the “quick removal” hatch and extinguished all hot spots; this response lasted until nearly 10 pm.

Unable to bring this latest fire outbreak under control, employees notified municipal emergency services; fire-fighters controlled the blaze using 4 m³ of water held in the handling tower pit. Their successful response ended around 1:30 pm. The maintenance crew replaced a sensor and electrical cables damaged by the fire and cleaned the dryer, which was placed back into service on 2 November; in all, 15 tonnes of sunflower seeds were destroyed. According to the silo operator, clogging due to a clustering of seeds with impurities (widespread that year) caused this accident. Plans were drawn to improve seed cleaning before drying and to drain and clean the dryer after each incident of this type.