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Fire at NC Fertilizer Plant May Cause Explosion, Prompting Evacuations a Mile Around

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The City of Winston-Salem is asking people within one mile of a raging blaze at a fertilizer plant to evacuate due to the possibility of a large explosion.

NBC affiliate WXII reports that the fire started Monday night at the Weaver Fertilizer Plant on Cherry Street. City officials have confirmed small explosions at the plant.

The building has collapsed as well, and access to the product that is in the building is restricted.

Firefighters say there is the potential for a large explosion of ammonium nitrate. Winston-Salem Fire Chief Trey Mayo says fire crews “abandoned” the fire-fighting operation because of the large volume of ammonium nitrate on site.

Battalion Chief Patrick Grubbs said in an early morning briefing Tuesday that he had at least 90 firefighters on the scene, and nearly 150 total personnel working. Crews on the scene had battled the blaze for two hours, but could not flow enough volume of water to be reasonably certain that they could keep it cool enough to prevent a detonation.

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The cause of the fire is unknown.

At around 2 a.m. first responders were driving through the area asking residents to evacuate to safety as the threat of an explosion still loomed.

“Don’t wait for something to happen. Something has happened. Now is the time to get out,” Mayo said on Twitter.

According to a Winston-Salem Police Department news release, the 4400 block of Cherry Street from North Point Boulevard to Indiana Avenue was closed while emergency crews responded to the fire around 8:20 p.m. and remains closed.

“The evacuation area around 4440 North Cherry Street has almost 6500 residents or 2,497 households,” the City of Winston-Salem reported on its Twitter page.

Nearby Wake Forest University released a statement asking some students in off-campus housing to voluntarily evacuate.

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“The evacuation area does not include on-campus housing, with the exception of Deacon Place, which is within the one-mile evacuation radius,” the school wrote in an alert on its website.

People who have evacuated should plan to be away from their homes for up to 48 hours.

No injuries have been reported.



Source: NBC New York

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