In a VHU center, a rubber strip caught fire around 12 noon when a bus axle was being cut by a torch. A crane technician reacted by swinging a metal ball with a grapple to attempt to extinguish the fire. This did indeed extinguish the fire on the bus, but not before it had spread it to a storage box of cleaned ELVs (containing a mixture of poor quality scrap metal and polyurethane foam elements) located 10 m away. Faced with a growing fire in the storage box, the facility operator alerted the fire brigade, prohibited access to the site, evacuated the employees and shut down the site’s activity. About 40 firefighters intervened 1 hour after the start of the fire with a significant amount of resources to prevent the fire from spreading. In addition to the fire hydrant closest to the site, a flexible pipe system was used to draw water from the Moselle River, located 2 km away. Confined to the storage box by 3 2-hour firewalls, the fire was brought under control in 2 hours’ time.

One of the firefighters suffered from heat stroke and was taken to the hospital. The effects of the fire were limited to 20 t of partially charred metal waste. The site’s activities were restarted the following Monday.

The extinguishing water were contained in the 320 m³ retention basin provided for this purpose. An independent laboratory analyse the water recovered from the retention basin. As they complied with the limit values imposed by prefectoral decree, the water was evacuated from the separator by the rainwater network and then directed towards the natural environment. The operator also sent the calcined metal waste to authorised recycling/disposal facilities.

Since the concrete platform on which the storage box was built was badly damaged, the operator also checked its tightness and took the necessary corrective actions to ensure its integrity.

The Inspection authorities for classified facilities requested that the facility operator submit an accident report. One month before the fire, the facility operator had modified the operational organisation, including the installation of 4 storage boxes for ELVs and scrap metal, but he did not inform the inspection authorities. These changes may have increased the hazards, relative to those considered in the prefectoral decree regulating the site. The facility operator was asked to correct this situation.

To avoid erroneous behaviour by technicians in emergency situations, the facility operator agreed to regularly organise awareness-raising actions (in the form of fire drills) for its staff.

Another fire started on this site in June 2010 (ARIA 39506).