White smoke rises from a warehouse and a fire appears to be spreading to the neighboring production hall. There are injured employees, some with skin burns. Several people are still missing. At around 9 am on Saturday morning, 12 October 2024, the emergency call is received by the district fire station and a long convoy of more than 50 fire engines rushes to the ARGUS Additive Plastics company in the Büren industrial area. An explosion or an accident - what was happening? It quickly became clear that the reason for the call-out was not a real emergency, but a large-scale training exercise by the Büren fire department.
Around 210 firefighters took up the challenge with the utmost commitment and professionalism: leaking substances were identified and the injured persons were rescued from the danger zone and successfully handed over to the emergency services. The exercise focused on the handling of hazardous chemical substances and in particular the use of the new extinguishing water retention basin at ARGUS. For this reason, in addition to the fire engines from Büren and the surrounding towns, Bad Wünnenberg and Salzkotten, the special train for chemical hazards (NBC train) from Delbrück also arrived.