A fire was detected at approximately 12:15 p.m. in the filter units of a glass dryer at a glass recycling plant. A massive plume of smoke could be seen from afar, accompanied by the smell of ammonia. All 15 employees were evacuated. The firefighters arrived at 12:30 p.m. and finished operations at about 4:00 p.m. Two fire hoses were deployed using the two fire hydrants nearest the site. They removed the burnt waste from the site and used thermal cameras to check the temperature of all the installations.

An employee suffering from smoke inhalation did not need to be taken to the hospital.

As a result of the accident, the chimney flue was deformed, 540 filtration sleeves were destroyed (240 acrylic and 300 polyester) and the blower motor was damaged. Activity was able to continue, despite the damage. Overall property damage at the facility was evaluated at less than €1 million. The same applies to production losses.

The wastes generated (charred filtration sleeves) were removed and processed externally. Damaged metal elements (sleeve holders) were sent to be recycled. The fire-water run-off was collected and then processed by a specialised company.

At the time of the accident, restart operations were in progress on the processing line following an hour of various preventive maintenance operations.

The accident was caused by self-ignition of a particle of unknown origin in the bed of material in contact with the base of the fluidized bed dryer. This particle, having reached its self-ignition temperature, was drawn into the conduit conveying smoke from the crown of the dryer toward the filter. It was large enough to remain incandescent all the way to the filter and then convey its heat to the textile filtration sleeves which ignited, resulting in the fire.

The operator plans to install a spark detection system in the conduit conveying the fumes from the dryer to the filter. It remains to be evaluated whether or not it is appropriate to combine this detection with an automatic extinguishing system.