A 50 m³ heap of spruce bark caught fire at around 3:30 p.m. at a sawmill subject to authorization. The sawmill’s director alerted the firefighters on her mobile phone at 3:32 p.m., but had difficulty reaching them. As the sawmill borders two departments, she dialled 112 from a GSM line and reached the emergency services in the neighbouring department, but this connection was also very poor. She then dialled 18 from a landline and finally got in touch with the emergency services that serve the sawmill. When the firefighters arrived at 3:45 p.m., they had problems attacking the flames because the flow coming out of the fire hydrant was too low. They extinguished the fire at around 4.00 p.m. using a reserve located north of the sawmill. The pile was monitored until 8:00 p.m.

The operator estimated the operating losses at €150,000.

Fermentation of the wood caused it to reach its combustion temperature. Well known in the industry, this phenomenon depends on the size of the bark heap and the ambient temperature. The bark heap was large because customer demand was low. The outdoor temperature was 18 °C and the humidity level was 40%, which was high for the season. The lack of wind probably contributed to the phenomenon.

In order to no longer depend directly on customer demand and reduce the size of the bark heap, the operator set up a bark recovery facility.