At around 11.40 p.m., a fire broke out on a forklift truck at a cardboard factory. This truck was used for handling bales of old paper. According to the forklift truck driver, whose task was to replenish the conveyors feeding the pulpers for pulp manufacturing by travelling back-and-forth between the stock and the conveyors, the area in which he went to fetch a batch of bales was dusty following the cutting out of reels of rejects during the day. On the return trip, in reverse gear, he sensed a burning smell. He stopped the machine and took a stick to clear away a piece of paper which was burning, but the fire continued below the truck at the front, where the hydraulic circuits pass. He raised the alarm and used an extinguisher to put out the fire. Providing reinforcement, the in-house emergency response team used a fire hose station. When the firefighters arrived, the fire had been nearly brought under control. The truck came out of the building by the nearest door to be parked on an area away from any combustible material.

The truck was destroyed. A few traces of blackened paper were visible on the ground in the part of the store where the fire occurred.

According to the initial information available to the operator, friction on papers picked up under the wheels of the truck, in a dusty and greasy environment, apparently caused them to become heated and catch fire at the level of the truck’s bearing axes.

The operator scheduled the following measures:

• putting in place gratings below the trucks to prevent papers from rising into the wheels;
• conducting tests with electric trucks;
• regularly spraying the coil cutting area to neutralise the dust.

A machine fire had broken out on this site three months earlier (ARIA 59211).