A fire broke out at a car upholstery factory at around 12:30 a.m. The factory’s felt line had broken down at the end of the evening but was repaired and restarted. The manufacturing process involves feeding blocks of recycled textiles into an oven to be heated to 100 °C. These blocks are then transferred into a press to be shaped. The factory’s employees are instructed to immediately empty the oven in the event the line shuts down. However, this was not done. After the line was restarted, the oven door was opened. This created a draught that ignited the overheated fibres. The heat triggered the sprinkler inside the oven’s flue, stopping the line and sounding an alarm. The employees notified the firefighters and attacked the fire with nearby hoses. The fire was out when the firefighters arrived.

The surfaces near the source of the fire were covered with large blobs of fibres that had probably been clumped together by the firewater. The inspection authorities for classified facilities asked the operator to clean these surfaces to prevent another fire. A cleaning procedure in which all surfaces are dusted off every four to six weeks was already in place at the factory.

As the fire damage was limited, the production line was put back in service in the evening. The operator reminded its employees of the instructions and increased their training.