At around 6 a.m., a fire broke out on a 3,600 m³ stock of class B wood (lightly treated wood: panels, furniture wood, etc.) in a waste recovery centre. Firefighters were able to protect the surrounding piles of waste (presence of many gas cylinders). With the help of the site’s employees, they sprayed down the wood chips with water and a layer of foam was deployed the next day to extinguish the residual fires. The fire brigade continued to mix the waste until the evening, although the stock of wood continued to burn for several days.

The fire destroyed 300 tonnes of wood, as well as a stock of common industrial waste containing plastics, cardboard, and glass wool, etc. The site’s electrical transformer was also damaged.

The site’s containment basin was equipped with pumps to evacuate the water. During the fire, the power outage rendered the pumps inoperative. As such, the firemen requested that the power supply be restored in order to prevent an overflow. After passing through a sludge and oil separator, 200 m³ of extinguishing water was discharged into the rainwater network without analysis. However, the system had not been cleaned since 2012. During the operation, some of the water managed to flow directly into the street.

The operator had not been granted authorisation to sort, transit, or group common industrial waste (CIW), wood, cardboard and plastics. The only activities requiring authorisation include the sorting, transit and grouping of ferrous and non-ferrous metal waste.

Several other discrepancies were noted, including:

• the soil on the site had not been waterproofed;
• the site did not have a fire detection system inside the premises;
• the site was not equipped with hose reels.

As such, a formal notice was issued.