Upon returning from their break at approximately 8 a.m., the employees of a non-hazardous waste consolidation and sorting centre were alerted by a burning smell and black smoke coming from a building. This building was dedicated to the shredding of bulky waste received from collection centres and contained 400 t of waste.

The employees called the emergency rescue services. Pending their arrival, they were able to remove the machinery (excavator and shredder) from the building and thus protect them from the flames. They then began fighting the fire with hoses and fire extinguishers. Upon arriving at the site, the firefighters connect their hoses to the platform’s firefighting network. The fire was brought under control at around 11:00 a.m. The waste was extracted from the building by a bucket loader and then sprayed down for 3 hours and covered with sand. The operator set up a monitoring programme to prevent any renewed outbreak of fire.

The extinguishing water was confined. The accident affected the roof of the building, the cladding of the façade, the metal structure and the concrete support, as well as elements of its electrical system. Throughout the period, during which the building was unavailable, the shredding activity was conducted outdoors on an asphalt slab equipped with a system designed to manage the runoff water.

According to the operator, the fire had started in the stock of bulky raw waste (consisting of a mixture of wood, metals, plastics and fabrics) waiting to be shred, and not in the shredding activity itself. The shredding process had started that morning at 6:50 a.m., before the staff break period.

Following the accident, the operator:

• established emergency procedures for the staff, detailing what to do in the event of a fire;
• installed a system to monitor the checks to be performed on all fire safety devices throughout the site;
• planned regular fire drills with the emergency rescue services, using fire-extinguishing equipment;
• installed an automatic extinguishing system in all buildings on the site where waste is stored or processed (baling press building, shredding building, selective collection storage building), combined with the existing fire detection system coupled with thermal-imaging cameras;
• extended the existing system for monitoring and forwarding “fire risk” information to on-call staff outside working hours.