At around 4:00 p.m., a fire broke out in a 3700 m² building housing the selective sorting line, baling operations, and piles of sorted waste (plastics, paper, cardboard, general waste) at a sorting plant located at a river port. The caretaker gave the alert and 160 firefighters responded with six foam nozzles. Traffic at the river port was halted until the fire was put out. A first responder was taken to hospital for injuries. The fire was extinguished at around 2:00 a.m. Monitoring rounds were conducted over the following days.

The fire destroyed the 3700 m² building. The firewater was contained by closing the three network isolation valves.

An emergency-measures decree was issued. To resume operations, the operator must:

• have the usability of the buildings checked by a competent expert;
• analyse the causes of the fire and implement preventive measures;
• revise its operating procedures to ensure operations are carried out under maximum safety conditions;
• check that the plant’s safety mechanisms operate correctly;
• step up monitoring rounds at the plant (including outside operating hours).

As the operator had seen three fires at locations distant from one another, he thought that the fire was criminal. A fire had previously occurred at the same sorting plant (ARIA 48319) one year earlier.