Update on Winston-Salem fertilizer plant fire

At 44 40 North Cherry Street

And what's to say that we still do have an

active fire

Our messages stayed the same the whole time

We're asking all the citizens to stay out of the

area if they're in the area to evacuate

Um There still is a risk of explosion at this

time

And the major changes for us overnight have been with

the weather we had rain coming tonight and then through

the morning that gave us some positives and some negatives

The positive is it's putting water on the fire which

is always a good thing

Um It's not always a good thing but in this

situation is a good thing to be putting water on

the fire cool in the area

The negative is the when the rain comes in it

pushes the smoke down lower to the ground creating more

of a health hazard

So again we're asking everybody if you have any kind

of respiratory illnesses or any kind of respiratory compromise stay

out of the smoke cloud

Um and it's also not good for anyone that is

healthy

Um The other changes that with the rain coming in

our journal teams have not been able to fly as

they normally have to survey the scene

We have had um companies go up to the scene

and do a survey and when we're survey and we're

trying to check to make sure the conditions have not

changed

And we're doing that from about 300 ft away

We do have a fire truck at the scene that

is flowing water on some hot spots

And uh there is no fire personnel maintaining position at

that location And that's all I have for now when

you break a leg Okay We'll go now to to

McIntyre

Good morning rick McIntyre

Our investigator with the Winston Salem Fire and Life Safety

division and lead investigator on this on this incident

We've already initiated the fire investigation process

We have assembled a team Uh 12 people that consist

of multiple agencies to assist us

We have members from ah the FBI

We've had members from A

T

F

We have members from the north Carolina office of State

Fire Marshal

And we often ask for those agencies to assist us

when we have a large or a complex uh incident

that we need to investigate

So they bring some additional uh skill sets and experience

to the team

Currently they are collecting information conducting interviews working with reviewing

some of the drone video footage to help us understand

at least at this point uh the layout and the

damage that's occurred

Obviously we have not been not started the own scene

examination yet and that will be done only when it's

safe for our personnel to do so

Uh that is obviously being coordinated with the Supreme Operations

and that will come later

This is an ongoing investigation

Okay

That's all I got is time

Thank you sir

Okay so we'll open it up now for questions

How much is the risk for explosion Um You know

are we is it the same level of concern this

morning as it was yesterday Has it increased Has it

decreased What's that looking like right now Yes

So the question was our risk for explosion um With

that the right now we still do have a risk

for explosion as time goes by and as the fire

gets smaller uh the risk obviously does go down some

but there is still a risk

One of the big things is um it's kind of

held us up overnight was in the darkness

So as the sun comes up this morning we will

um make me able to make a better assessment as

to our explosion risk

Do we know if the fire has gotten smaller given

the rain overnight Is can we assume that Okay

Um It has gotten a little bit smaller but there

is still active fire there and were only able to

observe it right now from about 300 ft away before

we were using drones and helicopters and we do not

have access to that in the rainy conditions

and what determines when it's safe for investigators to go

back on site

So we have specialists here from several states um we

have air monitoring equipment from the E

P

A

Here

So what we've done is put monitors all around the

scene we're checking for different gasses and once those gasses

get too um safe levels to be close enough to

start investigation as well as um when our experts examine

what's actually burning there's a big difference between if we

have structural members burning versus um Chemicals burning and from

a 300 ft away it's were unable to tell especially

at night without drone footage and for the people in

the evacuation zone areas

Um is there a message you can give to them

as far and better update as to maybe a better

time reference this morning when they could be back in

their homes No ma'am not at this time we do

not have um projected return

Um

was the State Highway Patrol able to get the aerial

shots yesterday and did that uh identify close to where

the fire is coming from Yes we were able to

have the helicopter come in

We had a Hazmat technician on the helicopter with them

We got a bunch of the aerial shots we've got

aerial shots of the rail car that was one of

our primary concerns and it was very effective

Are you able to are you able to rate the

explosion risk And can you say how close you are

Have been able to get to the site

So I wouldn't I don't want to rate the explosion

level um without having a better assessment of it

Um we have had crews that were pretty close to

it because we set up some unmanned monitors close to

the scene to hit hotspots

Um as far as our recon teams were staying out

about 300 ft in the area that they petroleum ammonium

nitrate is burning

Is that an area that is able to be exposed

to the rain Or is that covered So there's ammonium

nitrate throughout the building

Um to answer that question it should be open

The building has for the most part collapsed

There are some still covered areas but mostly those are

going to be open to the rain

Can you talk a little bit about the codes this

business had to follow or didn't have to follow based

on the age of the business McIntyre

Do you wanna address that or you want me to

So the The original building was built in 1939 and

opened in 1940

Uh the only Building code with the building code that

was in effect at that time was the 1936 building

codes

So why is that important The way the building codes

work in the state of north Carolina by statute The

uh north Carolina building code council is tasked with developing

adopting and amending building codes in the state of north

Carolina

That includes not only the fire code but building code

electrical mechanical uh and plumbing

That process through the legislative process uh determines what codes

are in effect at the time that the building is

constructed

If they don't change that building they only have to

meet the code that it was built under

When they do make a change they have to meet

the current building code and I'll use this uh this

site as an example there are five actually five buildings

on this site the original building and several other buildings

that were added to after after the fact Uh they

were built in the 40s the 50s and the 70s

Each time that one of those buildings was constructed added

to the site it had to meet the building code

that was in effect at the time of that building

buildings construction

I understand that

So can you kind of give me a comparison of

if that business were to open today what kind of

codes would they have to meet that The original building

not the new more newly constructed ones had to meet

the benefits today

Have a lot of more details and requirements in regards

to chemical Processes and chemical storage essentially back in the

in the 30s In the early 40s

There was very little in the building codes at the

time for for chemical processes and chemical storage

Now it's much more detailed and that would be what

would they would be required to meet if they built

it today

What kind of monetary value are we looking at If

any laws or changes were made that this business um

had to be up to today's code

I can't tell you what it would cost them to

basically build it new to today's code

I don't have that information

Have you heard anything else from the owners of these

companies I know yesterday um they did talk about the

$100,000 to help the evacuees

But anything else from the company from the from the

investigation team

We have had significant contact and and discussions with the

on site personnel

Uh They've all been very very helpful for providing information

for the investigation to this point

I have had any contact any contact with the corporate

I know we've seen the inspection reports from the last

three years from this city

Have there been any other state records that you've reviewed

or anything that show prior safety issues at this building

Anything that may have been electrical or the storage of

chemicals or anything of that nature

The Fire Department uh is required to conduct annual inspections

there

In addition there are other agencies that conduct inspections there

as well for stormwater issues environmental issues and those are

those records we are collecting as well

Can you kind of go through when you do your

inspections Do you go inside the building Is it just

more of an outside surveillance or a superficial surveillance of

hay a fire extinguisher How detailed do your teams get

in those inspections The typical inspection process for a facility

like this starts ahead of time starts a couple of

weeks ahead of time to collect information and review the

last of the the last inspection it was done when

the inspector goes on site

He has a number of things that that he or

she has to do

Uh huh meeting with the management of the facility reviewing

any documentation that they have that were required to look

at uh uh facility walked down basically from one end

to the other looking for any fire hazards or fire

code fire code violations

Now we're there to enforce and educate on the fire

code

If there is a a process going on or an

update going on or retrofit going on then that portion

of the work and that portion of the building has

to be brought up to the current building code

For example if they were doing electrical work in that

facility or in some ports in that facility they would

be required to meet the current electrical code as opposed

to the one that was from years ago when it

was originally built

So when the fire inspection processes going through uh physically

walking down all areas of the facility looking at uh

any fire code violations or any fire hazards or any

safety problems that they uh that they recognize part of

it and that does include storage of chemicals that includes

any fire or life safety equipment that they have if

it's to make sure it's properly maintained and ready for

service and electrical issues that uh that the inspector would

note

Do you know of any permits This company has taken

out recently to make any changes to its facility

We're still collecting that information

I don't know of any at this point but we're

still collecting that information and does a business like that

have to have a um different kind of timeline of

inspections than maybe another business Like is it you know

do you do it more frequently because of the hazardous

chemicals on property Sure

So the the the building inspection process in the state

of north Carolina has frequencies assigned to the type of

occupancy

A lot of a lot of businesses in jurisdictions are

conducted every three years or every two years or every

one year

This is considered a hazardous occupancy due to the chemical

storage that they have and it gets an annual especially

because it is a hazardous facility understood

And then just to get a little personal um just

asking how you grubs the rest of your team are

doing with this ongoing fight and talking a little bit

about what it's like for you to fight a fire

from if you will so far away when your teams

are used to being up so close and you know

being so much more involved in these kinds of situations

So I'll take that one right

One of the big things for us it is it

is a hard challenge for us to kind of step

back and and look at everything from a distance

Um I was on one of the first arriving companies

when this incident happened and our crews uh battled for

two hours to try to stop the fire before we

realized that the conditions were unstoppable at that time

Making the decision for us to leave is it's very

hard and understanding what the impact to the community um

could be is it's very hard for us

We have to make these decisions every day and uh

typically they do not include leaving the scene

So it's a it's challenging for us but when we

look back we understand the risks that are involved and

that's why we make the decisions that we have to

make since you were one of the first ones on

the scene

Can you kind of describe to me the like through

your eyes the intensity of that fire when you pulled

up you know that you knew hey we've got to

pull back

Yeah so um basically the intensity was when we got

there it was a defensive attack

But looking at it from our standpoint is we try

to prevent it from going any further than it already

was and uh that just was not going to happen

There was not enough water in the area that was

not enough

Um it just it was already too far gone before

we got there to do anything to stop it

And can you just describe it Mhm the intensity of

the flames heat from from your perspective like how close

could you get before you felt that heat I mean

you can feel it from a very long ways away

um where our crews were operating was within 20 ft

of the building and the heat was immense

But um that's what that's what we do and that's

why we uh thats what we say

before the lead investigator

Are there any preliminary investigation details you can share And

also when you're able to get to the building or

into the building how long could it take for you

all to find the cause I'm sorry I couldn't hear

the question

Could you repeat the question please Yes

So um are there any preliminary investigation details you can

share And then also when you all are able to

enter the building how long could it take for you

all to find the cause So the on site investigation

can be very complicated especially if the uh if they're

due to the extent of damage uh at this time

we can't make an estimate of how long the the

on site investigation is going to take

Weird once we are able to access the site and

begin that process will have a much better idea of

how long how long that portion of the investigation is

going to take

Can you talk a little bit about the initial call

I know that you've said an employee from the company

called 911 and it seems the flames started in the

loading dock area

Is that correct And how do you know that at

this point If you couldn't get that close to the

fire

So the actual 1st 911 call that we that was

received was actually from a passerby that was driving past

on North Cherry Street

However within this within the space of 3-4 minutes there

were over a dozen phone calls uh to both from

the facility and from passersby and others outside the facility

that saw the fire

So within the space of just a few moments there

were multiple calls coming in

The initial of Call

The initial 911 call came from a passerby

Okay

And have you been able to determine because per you

know the website the business was closed at four p.m.

I believe the first call as it's been identified from

either you or someone else was 6 45 PM

Have we been able to determine if the business was

closed If anybody was actually at the facility at the

time the fire started There was one employee left at

the facility and we did and the 911 Center did

get a call from that uh last employee reporting the

fire

And that was at 6:43 I think

And with the smoke being low lying is there a

possibility that you all will extend the perimeter for air

quality issues at this time We don't have um We

don't plan to extend the perimeter

Um Again like I said as soon as the sun

comes up this morning we'll get a better assessment on

it

We might be able to go in and do more

extinguishing efforts but we don't know any of that right

now

And uh I don't anticipate it getting any larger this

time

How will you be able to assess when this situation

is once it is safe for firefighters to actually be

able to fight this fire on site Um And really

what will that look like Once like what are the

first steps once you're actually able to be on site

So first steps is uh we have specialists

Again like I said we have specialists here

The um we'll get them out of sight analyzing what's

actually burning

Again it depends on if it's structural members um natural

things or if we're dealing with chemicals at that point

Once we make that determination uh then we use to

determine what kind of extinguishment we want to do uh

this is gonna involve heavy equipment as well

So there's a lot of variables

And uh and I apologize we just don't have that

information until we can get out there on the site

and give you some more information

Do you guys think that the city was prepared for

something like this considering that we have this facility of

this kind in our own backyard

We're always prepared you know for anything that that might

come up

I was reading that there always has to be when

companies like this have chemicals of this nature on site

there's always a pre plan because you know the hazard

that's already there

What pre plan did your team does your team have

for this facility And what part of it did you

implement And how did it help you in this situation

to keep things from to this point exploding

So this building has been pre planned as well as

uh McIntyre also discussed we do fire inspections at this

location

Ah we knew the hazards going in and um they

said we we use everything at our at our disposal

to try to control this fire to where we're at

now

How did you attack this from the start differently than

you would a normal fire knowing the hazardous materials on

site So the the biggest concern when we arrived um

is trying to protect the uh the chemicals from the

fire

Um and there was nothing um one thing that's hard

to explain is that how fast things change on the

scene and when they changed and we knew that there

was no longer were no longer able to protect the

chemicals from the fire

Then we uh we started to uh change the way

we were thinking have there been fires on this side

in the past

McIntyre Do you want to address that or Okay could

you repeat the question I couldn't hear it Have there

been fires on this site in the past Okay

Have there been fires on the site in the past

They have had some incidents some minor incidents the within

the past couple of years as as far back as

as we've reviewed they've had a couple of minor electrical

fires or fires in electrical equipment process equipment

Ah And that's that's basically the extent of it

I think there might have been a car fire 30

years ago in the parking lot

But that's basically it

And have you all investigated a fire of this magnitude

And are you able to give any examples where you

are Your team has experienced something like this So obviously

this is a a major and complex fire especially involving

the chemicals that are on the site and that's why

we enlarged our investigation team to bring in experienced uh

investigators from other agencies to help us through this process

as part of the team

So obviously we don't have we don't have a lot

of facilities like this

But this particular facility with the with the fire the

size of the fire and the chemicals involved we reached

out to other agencies for assistance

um seeing this fire and what happened in your city

And I want to say you guys have done an

outstanding job fighting this fire and communicating with the media

and the community

So thank you for that

But after seeing what happened here at the weaver fertilizer

plant

Do you think there needs to be changes and buildings

that are older like this are grandfathered into older codes

need to be for the lack of a better word

forced to be up to today's code

So um at this time we're not going to really

discuss any you know what the afterthought we're just right

now we're in the command post we're still trying to

make decisions for right now

What's going on today Do you anticipate that we will

hear directly from someone from the company at one of

your upcoming news conferences I know they've released you know

video statements but actually get in front of the microphone

and take questions from the media

Mom

I can't answer that at this time

Can you briefly just talk about what today's plan will

look like

again The same thing as before

The plan is as soon as the sun comes up

we gotta get on site and and really analyze everything

Um once we do that then that's when our plan

really starts

Um it could be another it could be another day

It could be another week of waiting

We don't know

Um we just we don't want to speculate on what

we're gonna do until we get out there and see

what's going on

Do we have an idea of how many people have

evacuated I know over the last few days we haven't

do we have any better idea now Uh there's no

way for us to tell who uh completely evacuated

The biggest thing with that is uh we don't know

that they don't have to report to us that they

have evacuated

So we do not know how many of them evacuated

Are there still on the ground evacuation efforts for the

P

A

System or any sort of door knocking or is that

over at this point As Chief Mayo said we have

saturated the area and uh tried every option that we

know of to get the message out and we continue

to do that

Even with this uh press conference now I just wanted

to personally thank you for your time and waking up

so early day after day and being available basically 24/7

to answer our questions and update us

So I thank you for that

Yes ma'am

And I like I said I want to reiterate to

everyone

We want to get everyone back into their homes as

soon as possible

Um We've got a lot of resources out here as

well and we understand that people are not in their

houses but we want to make sure that we do

this in the most safe way that we possibly can

do it

All right

Thank you man

I know you guys need to get back to your

work

Their media

Thank you again for attending your patients

Larry Bell is Larry is handling getting a recording for

you all and so if you want that recording just

email him

He's the one that sent me the link and uh

and will get that to you as quickly as we

can

Thank you

Uh Chief McIntyre and uh and grubs

We thank you for your work and we will see

you all later

Today will also follow the twitter account to know about

the next scheduled news conference

Thank you guys