In the early afternoon of Friday February 28, 2025, a fire broke out at the Bussière digital printing plant in the Saint-Amand-Montrond industrial zone in the Cher department. According to L'Echo du Berry the incident was caused by a paper jam on a cutting station, which ignited a fire on a binder on one of the three production lines.
The site, owned by the CPI group, has the largest digital book printing capacity in Europe. The 25 employees present were immediately evacuated. Trained in safety reflexes, some of them intervened with the fire-fighting equipment available on site, thus limiting the spread of the disaster. The thirty or so firefighters then took over.
What is the human and material toll?
Exposed to smoke, three employees were taken in by SMUR paramedics for precautionary examinations. On the equipment side, a bookbinder and an adjacent machine were damaged, reports L'Echo du Berry .
By 6pm, two of the three production lines were back in operation. The technical analysis of the incident will determine the measures to be taken to bring the affected line back into service. For the time being, all production teams have been maintained, but decisions on possible lay-offs could be taken depending on the conclusions of this assessment, according to the company Le Berry Républicain .
Despite several attempts, it has not been possible to contact CPI management to obtain details of the measures envisaged for the full resumption of operations.
