A fire involving 150 tonnes of sunflower meal was detected in the early morning after smoke was seen exiting a silo of a company that mills flour and animal feed. The public firefighters were alerted. The employees brought the fire under control by emptying the storage bin containing the sunflower meal. However, they were unable to remove a massed clump of meal weighing several hundred kilos. The storage bin was put out of service and its temperature was regularly monitored. The fire was caused by self-heating. As the combustion occurred at the top of the storage bin, the operator believes that a hot portion of meal delivered by its supplier started the fire (the most recent delivery was on 2 August). However, nothing unusual was reported in the delivery log. The insurer contacted a loss adjuster to determine the causes of the accident. The inspection authorities for classified facilities asked the operator to bolster its temperature checks and to check the silo’s integrity. On Sunday 25 August, the beginnings of a fire were found on the remaining clump of meal during a monitoring patrol. The firefighters extinguished the fire by cutting the storage bin’s metal wall and removing the meal with an excavator. They left at around at 4:00 p.m. According to the operator, work to remove a ‘few hundred kilos of packed clumps of meal’ (ultimately estimated at 15 tonnes) had begun on 20 and 21 August, but was halted because no more waste skips were available. This new fire was caused by a hot spot at the centre of the meal. The silo, which was beyond repair, was scrapped. The inspection authorities for classified facilities asked the operator to draw up procedures for detecting and handling self-heating inside its storage facilities and to obtain the necessary equipment to completely empty storage bins in the event of overheating.