Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

At around 6 a.m., a fire broke out in a semi-trailer parked in the parking lot of a warehouse. The fire spread rapidly to the other vehicles in the parking area (tractors and semi-trailers). More than 70 firefighters intervened to bring the fire under control at around 9:30 p.m. Traffic on the nearby A36 motorway was shut down due to the high emission of smoke.

The fire started from a semi-trailer containing composite IBCs and steel or plastic drums filled with industrial waste (dichlorooctane, biocides, chlorinated products, etc.). The semi-trailer, which was parked in the car park for almost three hours, contained 16 t of waste which had been loaded that very day at around 2 p.m. at a waste processing company in Hamburg. The temperatures reached at the end of the day were unusually high for June (35 °C at the Mulhouse-Bâle station at 10/06).

The firefighting water was directed to an infiltration well. Considering the risk of groundwater pollution, the Inspection Authorities for classified facilities required that the operator perform the following:

  • conduct soil analysis around the infiltration well;
  • propose soil and groundwater remediation solutions;
  • define a groundwater pollution monitoring network with the help of a hydrogeologist.

At the same time, the services of the inspectorate responsible for monitoring the transport of dangerous goods (TDG) are conducting an inquiry. According to the initial evidence, a specialised waste disposal company had packaged the plastic drums that were not in compliance with ADR requirements. Although they were approved for the transport of dangerous goods, they were used as the outer packaging for combined packaging. However, the approval of these drums does not authorise such use. The requirements for inner packaging were also not respected. The administration submitted a request for further information to the water disposal company.