By Anne Blythe and Will Atwater
Three years have passed since a massive fire broke out at the Winston Weaver fertilizer plant in the heart of Winston-Salem.
The blaze started at close to 7 p.m. Jan. 31, 2022, and soon raged out of control. Within hours firefighters feared they would be unable to gain the upper hand, in large part because the distribution plant housed large quantities of ammonium nitrate, an explosive chemical compound used in fertilizer.
Early in the morning of Feb. 1, the Winston-Salem fire chief pulled his teams out and called for an emergency evacuation of the 2,500 homes within a mile radius. Nearly 6,500 people were told to flee their homes in the middle of the night for their health and safety.
Businesses in the area were forced to close for several days.
Today, on the anniversary of the Winston Weaver fire, many are still trying to come to grips with the environmental, public health and legal impacts of what one city council member called “the worst fire” the city had ever seen.
Early in January, a judge in state court granted class action status to plaintiffs in a lawsuit initially filed against Winston Weaver Company by four residents from the evacuation zone and at least one business owner.
The lawsuit accuses the company of negligence, contending that:
- “Weaver knew or should have known that a fire could break out at its facility given previous fire department calls to the facility as well as numerous patent dangers.”
- The company “intentionally” disregarded the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act by failing to submit information to federal and state government agencies about “the hazardous and ultra-hazardous chemicals” stored at the plant after 2019.
- The company also violated Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards related to its storage of ammonium nitrate.
“According to Winston-Salem Fire Chief William Mayo, ‘there was enough ammonium nitrate on hand’ at the Weaver fertilizer plant that the fire could have resulted in ‘one of the [worst] explosions in U.S. history’,” the lawsuit states.
Negligence allegations
In a motion opposing the residents and business owner’s request for class action status, attorneys for the company contended there were not enough similarities between the allegations of each litigant, and that the claims should be treated on a case-by-case basis.
Although at least one resident reported hearing an explosion before the evacuation, the company’s attorneys contended “[a]lthough there was ammonium nitrate stored on the premises of the Weaver Plant, the ammonium nitrate never exploded or caused direct harm.”
Officials determined that at least 500 tons of ammonium nitrate were stored at the plant. And in one of two citations issued against the company after the fire, the state Department of Labor found that the highly explosive material was exposed to a water leak in the facility, according to the Associated Press.
“The case really stems from what we believe was the negligence of Winston Weaver,” Gary Jackson, an attorney with James Scott Farrin representing the residents, told NC Health News. “The place was a mess.”
Even now, the cause remains “undetermined.”
Lingering concerns
When Winston-Salem native Jacques Holiday was about 5 years old, his parents separated, and his father moved to Tobacco Street in the Piney Grove neighborhood within a mile of the plant. Holiday said, growing up, he would “come and go,” shuttling between each parent’s home.
Holiday’s father and stepmother eventually purchased two homes on Tobacco Street. His son Austin, 32, lives in one of the properties, and they rent out the other, keeping Holiday connected to the community.
Those community bonds led Holiday to join the class action lawsuit.
“We’d like to send a signal to chemical plants or industrial companies that if you’re [located] in a neighborhood or surrounded by a community, you have to take care of it,” Holiday told NC Health News in a phone interview.
Ultimately, the decision to allow a class action suit that could include 6,500 residents or business owners could lead to settlement talks, Jackson said.
If negotiations fall short, a trial could begin this summer.
Did the fire affect health?
Callie Brown, associate professor of pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and pediatrician at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, has been working on a multi-year study of people who live within a mile of the shuttered plant.
Brown, her colleagues and their community partners, including the faith organization Iglesia Christiana Sin Fronteras and nonprofit Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods, launched their project in 2022 to investigate the short- and long-term health consequences of the fertilizer plant fire on nearby residents.
The study includes an environmental assessment, interviews with local residents and an evaluation of Atrium Health/Wake Forest Baptist’s electronic medical records of people who live nearby.
Credit: Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist
Researchers collected air samples at the Weaver plant site as well as nitrogen oxide levels from multiple points throughout Winston-Salem from fall 2022 through summer 2023 for the environmental assessment, Brown told NC Health News.
They also conducted community interviews in English and Spanish — 20 in each language — to reveal how the fire affected residents, Brown said. Residents told researchers they “were unaware of the potential dangers of the plant, had concerns about pollution after the fire [and] were distrustful of the city’s evacuation and clean-up efforts,” according to a preliminary report that Brown provided to NC Health News.
Researchers involved with the study examined medical records of about 22,000 people — 2,500 in the Weaver group and 10,000 each in two control groups chosen to provide a baseline comparison.
The medical assessment looked at records of residents living within a mile of the fire and put them up against people in those control groups living outside that radius. The assessment also matched neighborhoods and neighborhood groups with similar characteristics and a patient group with comparable age, sex, race, ethnicity, language and insurance, Brown said.
“Residents reported experiencing significant mental, physical and financial health effects from the fire,” Brown said.
So far, the research has led to few hard and fast conclusions about the health impact on residents in close proximity to the fire.
“More time is needed to understand the long-term health effects of the fire on residents’ health, which is why we’ll continue to repeat these analyses going forward,” Brown said. “We’re not drawing any conclusions from this data.”
Looking toward the future
As the study progresses, longtime Piney Grove resident Sabrina Webster, 62, said she welcomes additional monitoring of the digital health records and further analysis of the air, soil and water in her neighborhood. That will help ensure that the greater community will not forget the Weaver plant fire.
Webster said the fire that shook her neighborhood three years ago represents another environmental injustice inflicted on communities like hers, comprised primarily of people of color.
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“It’s significant to me and our future generations to make a difference,” Webster told NC Health News in a text message. “Everyone is entitled to breathe clean air and water.”
Kayana Young, an assistant professor at the Wake Forest department of engineering, conducted the environmental assessment. After hearing some lingering concerns expressed by Piney Grove residents, she said she has agreed to continue periodic testing.
“Our biggest concern now, for [those] still here, is what’s to come 10, 15, 20 years from now after the dust has settled and everybody’s moved on,” Holiday said. “How’s the soil going to be, our health, our kids’ health, because people still worry.”
“At the request of community members, I tested the air and the soil more than 500 days after the fire had occurred,” Young said. “I didn’t suspect I would find any concerning remnants in the air or soil given the timeline after the fire.”
Young noted, she has an agreement with the community that s/he would continue with the assessment, “as long as they want me to continue.”
In addition to more sampling, Young said she is working on another project to honor the community’s wishes. During a conversation with Webster, Young asked what’s something positive that could come out of the community’s experience. Webster said community members wanted a greenhouse.
Webster said the greenhouse could serve as a positive symbol and provide educational opportunities for young people interested in learning to grow vegetables and flowering plants.
Young is in the final stage of securing funding to make the greenhouse a reality.
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