Shortly after 11 am on Saturday 30th December fire broke out at the Bobingen plant of Trevira GmbH in the spinning mill of the fibre unit. The cause was a burning cable. The whole staple fibre section was immediately shut down and the building, in which there were 12 workers, evacuated.
Two were taken to hospital with slight fume poisoning: they were allowed home on the same day. Thanks to the rapid deployment of the works fire brigade and firefighters from Bobingen, Königsbrunn and Schwabmünchen, it was possible to extinguish the blaze in 60 minutes.
One section of the plant, with six of a total fourteen machines, was severely affected. Production of flame retardant fibres, bico fibres and other specialty fibres, has not been affected by this damaging event: nor has any filament production.
It will not be possible to establish the precise extent of the damage until investigations by the authorities are concluded. One section of the machines not affected by the fire started up again on Saturday. "We are sure that production on all machines in fibres that are still intact will be able to commence in stages in the first week of January," says Works Manager Manfred Christian.
Trevira will be letting affected customers know at once about possible shortfalls in supply in the interim period and will co-ordinate with each of them to manage the situation as far as possible in the given circumstances. Other than reductions in time credit and holiday entitlement, there will be no effects of any substance on personnel in fibres.