At around 10:45 a.m., a fire started on a drive motor of a wheat conveyor belt outside a building at a gristmill. Although the fire was contained by the mill’s employees, it was extinguished by the firefighters because wisps of smoke could be seen rising. The mill’s operations were halted for a few hours. A few litres of oil, wheat dust and wheat were burnt at the seat of the fire. A total of 178 m³ of water was required.

The fire started while wheat was being transferred on a conveyor belt. Mechanical stress on the conveyor belt may have caused the oil in the coupling to heat up with tripping of the fuse, splashing of oil with self-ignition or fanning of an incipient dust fire. Drought conditions may have helped the dust to ignite. The area was scheduled to be cleaned the following week.

The operator implemented the following measures:

• study to install a fire detection system in the area;
• study to install an automatic fire extinguisher;
• the hydraulic coupling was replaced by a conventional coupling;
• the area is now cleaned once a year;
• the events were reviewed with the corporate committee for health, safety and working conditions (CHSCT) and a decision was taken to make some corrections to the alert procedure;
• more real-world exercises are conducted in production areas.

The operator issued an internal safety bulletin describing the event and the possible causes and containing safety rules and corrective measures.