Fire at the Worms Site

On Thursday, November 2, 2023, a fire broke out in a Röhm GmbH production plant at the Worms site at around 3 pm. Emergency services from the Röhm plant fire department, the Worms professional fire department and the surrounding fire departments were able to bring the fire under control and extinguish it completely by around 6 pm. There are no injuries.

The plant was shut down for maintenance work at the time the fire emerged. As a result of the fire, the site management decided yesterday to shut down the majority of operations at the site in a controlled manner.

With around 1,200 employees, Worms is Röhm's largest production and research site. Röhm produces polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), methacrylates (MMA) and the corresponding precursors in a total of seven plants at the site. The PMMA production plant continues to operate.

The focus is now on investigating the causes. The company is working closely with the relevant authorities. A joint inspection of the site took place today with the responsible police and trade supervisory authority.

In coordination with the authorities, Röhm will check the technical availability of the production facilities by the end of next week and is then expected to re-start the surrounding plants step by step, with the exception of the directly affected area.

“We would like to thank all internal and external emergency services, our crisis team and all employees who acted very quickly and professionally in this difficult situation. Our focus is now on further analyses on site and resuming operations safely,” says Hans-Peter Hauck, Chief Operating Officer at Röhm.

The investigation of the incident and the final assessment will take some time. We will continue to work closely with all public authorities.