On a Saturday at around 8:10 p.m., in the receiving hall of a waste processing centre, a fire broke out in a case containing 60 l of phytosanitary products taken from waste treatment centres. The fire alarm went off. A security agent notified the facility operator and the fire brigade as the fire spread to 5 additional cases of paint.

The diesel pump on the fire prevention and extinguishing network did not start so the supervisor on-call switched on the back-up electric pump. The sprinkler and foam system then started up and the firefighters began to put out the fire, bringing it quickly under control.

The case where the fire started had been exposed to direct sunlight throughout the day. The heat-sensitive phytosanitary products that it contained caught fire.

The automatic fire extinguishing system did not function properly. An initial detector had sent a ‘fire alarm’ alert at the outbreak of the fire. The extinguishing valve, however, only opened when a second detector confirmed the alarm. This confirmation did not occur until 30 minutes after the fire had started, when it had already spread to the other cases of paint. A veil of dust had formed on the optics of the 2nd detector, which lowered its sensitivity and increased its response time.

Following the accident, the operator took the following actions:

• the detectors’ optical components are checked and cleaned on a monthly basis;
• an IR lamp was purchased to simulate the outbreak of fire and conduct extinguishing tests on a monthly basis;
• ensure that a spare UV-IR detector is always available in the case of a breakdown or malfunction of one of the two detectors installed;
• replacement of the cabinet of the fire extinguishing installation so as to view the operation/non-operation of the pumps and to be alerted in the event of a fault on the fire control station.

Another event occurred on the site two months later (ARIA 48694).