Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

Fire broke out around 12:45 pm inside a 15-tonne sunflower dryer located in an isolated building that also contained 6 metal storage cells, 2 of which were filled with seeds. The material handling installation was shut down, energy supply lines turned off and external first responders notified. Fire-fighters perforated the roof to evacuate the smoke and proceeded to cool the facility using 3 water nozzles. In accordance with the opinion offered by the local Fire Department “silo” technical expert, and upon agreement of the silo operator, the decision was made to let the sunflower burn itself out while continuing to cool the dryer. Fearing a building collapse, fire-fighters remained outside the premises. The blaze ended around 7:30 the next morning and first responders extinguished the residual areas; monitoring rounds were set up. The fire reignited on top of the drying equipment and was snuffed out at 2:30 pm. Since an abnormal temperature rise (31°C) had also been detected by a thermal camera in a storage cell, the operator drained this cell as well as the adjacent container; this transfer operation was completed on 3 November around 1 pm. Silo personnel assumed site monitoring duties on the weekend. The dryer and accessory handling devices were damaged. Excessive sunflower drying (perhaps clogging in the column?) caused this accident. The gendarmerie, and both the gas and electricity utilities visited the scene. The operator installed a new dryer, equipped with an automatic extinction system, along with a water curtain between the drying station and the storage cells in order to protect the cells from fire.