A fire was reported around 8 a.m. in the building housing the boiler room of a chemical plant specialising in the manufacture of additives. Upon seeing a flaming leak on one of the 3 heat transfer pumps, a technician triggered the emergency stop, shutting down the utilities in the boiler room (gas, electricity, compressed air and heat transfer fluid) and then sounded the alarm. The first responders attacked the flames with 2 water hoses and 1 foam hose. The public fire brigade arrived at 8:15 a.m., and took over operations. They were able to stop the fire and the leak at around 8:45 a.m., while spraying down the external walls of the boiler room. They remained on site until 12:00 p.m. to ensure that the fire stayed out. The liquid waste (125 m³ of extinguishing water, 1 m³ of emulsifier and 100 l of heat transfer fluid) contained in the building’s retention area was directed to the site’s retention basin via the wastewater network, then treated by a dedicated treatment system. Property damage was limited to just one pump that had to be replaced. Four of the plant’s 6 distillation units were no longer supplied due to pump failure, causing distillation to shut down and 90% of the site’s production volume to stop. However, technical unemployment was avoided.

The failure of a seal on the pump was the cause of the accident. The other 2 transfer pumps were equipped with the same seal. The administration requested that the facility operator bring the structures (roof, structure, walls) of the boiler room and its internal retention facility into compliance. The electrical installations, fluid pipes, pressure equipment and the fire safety systems also had to be checked.