During the night, a high-expansion foam generator was inadvertently activated in one of the six storage cells of a warehouse in which phytosanitary products and agricultural seeds were stored. This cell was used to store products that are dangerous for the aquatic environment. The products were stored in plastic containers. At 11:43 p.m., a security guard conducting rounds alerted the company’s designated on-call person.

A large amount of foam had been released

The incident generated 20,000 m³ of high-expansion foam which spread outside the building over 1,000 m² with heights varying from 0.5 to 1.5 m. The farm adjacent to the site had a sheepfold for 50 animals but which was no longer used for that purpose. The internal emergency plan was initiated at around 8:30 a.m. the following morning as part of the foam clean-up operations. Around 20 firemen intervened in order to preserve the company’s estate and to restore access to the adjacent farm. The products stored in the cell were destroyed. The amount of the stored products lost and the consequences related to this incident (new foamer, inspection of the extinguishing and detection system, personnel labour costs, repackaging, relabelling, etc.) was estimated at 1 million euros. This incident did not result in an interruption of business, although an operating loss was noted.

Cause of the inadvertent tripping

The operator conducted an inspection of the manual release systems with the manufacturer. An anomaly was detected in an extinguishing alarm box located outside the storage area near an emergency exit door. No signs of forced entry were found. Moreover, the exact time when the extinguishing system was triggered could not be determined as no alarm was installed on the operator’s or the monitoring company’s premises.

Resumption of activity

Due to the automatic extinguishing system’s unavailability, the operator set up a permanent security arrangement. The automatic extinguishing system was restored to service on Tuesday, 21 June at 5 p.m. The Inspection Authorities for Classified Facilities requested that guidelines be drafted with regard to the actions to be taken in the event of an accident.