Around 3 pm, neighbours notified the town hall of a fire outbreak at a non-hazardous waste sorting and packaging centre (paper, cardboard, non-hazardous industrial waste). The town hall contacted the site manager, who showed up with 2 employees driving forklifts to reposition the waste. The fire had ignited the portion of waste slated for burial, which had originated from sorting 120 m³ of rejects. Helped by the facility operator, fire-fighters removed the bulk or rolled waste for sprinkling; the blaze was brought under control by 7:30 pm. The 150 m³ of extinction water were confined on-site by closing the storm drain shut-off valve and, the next day, pumping this volume to a treatment plant; the burned solid waste was collected and discarded into a non-hazardous waste incinerator. Six fire wall-type, reinforced concrete structures were damaged. Failing to locate flammable materials and due to speedy disposal of the burned waste, the operator felt that the presence of non-compliant waste in “glass” type flows, in creating a magnifying glass effect, had caused this accident. Moreover, the operator plan to back up :

• fire-fighting resources (fire water network, extinguishers, fire walls);
• existing means of prevention (visual inspection of wastes upon acceptance, flow sampling, removal of waste stockpiles from the site’s other installations, periodic control and cleaning of vehicles and machines, fire training and drills, the hot work permitting procedure).