A fire broke out at around 5:30 a.m. in the stack of an apple pomace dryer of a plant that produces pectin. The dryer had been cooled at around 3:00 a.m. following a failure of its feed screw. This cooling should have lasted for four hours, but instead it was cut to only one hour and fifteen minutes. According to the normal cooling procedure, the fan is supposed to operate until the temperature at the dryer outfeed is less than 40 °C. However, in order to speed up the repairs to the feed screw and get production going again quickly, the foreman removed the temperature sensor from its housing. As a result, it indicated the outdoor temperature (20 °C). This caused the fan, which is controlled by the sensor, to turn off although the temperature at the dryer outfeed was 56 °C and the temperature inside the furnace was greater than 200 °C. The high temperature and lack of ventilation caused the dust and soot inside the gas flue and stack to slowly combust and then burst into flame. The plant operator implemented the internal emergency plan at 5:45 a.m. The alert was lifted at 7:20 p.m. The plant operator plans to immediately implement the following measures: The sensor at the dryer outfeed will be fastened inside its housing. A work authorisation to be signed by the production manager will be drawn up for cleaning operations. The fan, which used to be controlled only by the dryer outfeed temperature (< 40 °C) will also be controlled by the temperature inside the furnace (< 70 °C). The plant operator also plans to issue a document to all its foremen. In the not too-distant future, it plans to further reduce the amount of dust and soot inside the gas flue and stack by increasing the efficiency of the gas scrubber and the scrubbing of the flue and the stack. The fire did not affect the plant's operations because the production plan had been modified (instead of being made from apple pomace, the pectin was being made from lemon peel, which does not require the use of the dryer). As the extinguishing water (20 m³) was treated directly at the plant's wastewater treatment facility, there was no pollution to the outside environment. The short-term action plan is expected to be completed on 20 November, the date on which the dryer is scheduled to be restarted.