In February 2022 a fire broke out at the Winston Weaver Company Fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem, NC. It is estimated that the plant holds a stock of over 500 tons of fertilizer, ammonium nitrate.
The fire at a fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem caused large scale evacuations.
According to Winston-Salem fire chief William “Trey” Mayo, “At the beginning of this incident there was enough ammonium nitrate on hand for this to be one of the worst explosions in U.S. history.”
Five days after the fire at a fertilizer plant broke out in North Carolina, most of the people that were evacuated are returning to the homes and businesses. An investigation is now underway by fire fighters from the Winston-Salem Fire Department. The BATF and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation will conduct an investigation into the causes of the fire.
The building is 82 years old and will be checked to ensure that it has been maintained and modified to meet current safety standards.
It is understood that the plant was recently inspected and that the plant passed this inspection. However it was inspected under the fire code in effect in 1939 when the plant was built.
This plant was built when there was no city in place and therefore only has to meet the fire codes related to its construction date. The current fire codes are much more thorough when it comes to chemical storage. The plant did not have a sprinkler system and it is thought that a two-sprinkler system would have been capable of containing the fire at a fertilizer plant.
Depending on what is found at Weaver, fire codes could change and that would go through the Code Council.
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