Press "Enter" to skip to content

Wake Forest University students on fire at fertilizer plant

By Mariama Jallow

On the night of January 31, a fertilizer plant with 600 tons of ammonium nitrate inside caught fire on Cherry Street in Winston-Salem, displacing 6,500 residents as emergency officials waited to see if the combustible materials would cause explosions.

The Winston Weaver Company fertilizer site is not far from Wake Forest University, a campus with nearly 7,600 students who will return to classes this week with many questions after several chaotic days. Many wonder about the long-term effects of being near such a large fire.

North Carolina environmental advocate Krista Early released a statement praising the Winston Fire Department- Salem for its abundant caution while also encouraging a longer-term discussion on how best to protect communities near such facilities.

unnecessary for long-term environmental health,” Early said. “Hopefully, none of our North Carolina teammates get hurt here. And when this crisis is over, we need to have a serious conversation about storing dangerous chemicals.”

Wake is 1.7 miles from the fertilizer plant, just a bit outside the fire department's established evacuation zone. Deacon Place, the university-owned off-campus apartments, are closer and students living there and in other housing within a mile of the plant were encouraged to seek alternative housing last week.

In an email sent on January 31, Wake Forest administrators told students that the ZSR Library, Wellness Center and Benson, which houses the food court, mail services and meeting rooms, were closed. open for those who were forced to leave their homes. houses

"You may want to bring a sleeping bag, pillow and/or blanket to stay comfortable if the evacuation lasts more than a short time," the email said.

A At 10:03 p.m., the burning building collapsed and firefighters abandoned the fire because they did not have enough water to contain the fire amid the lingering risk of an explosion.

It is not clear what caused the fire. The Winston-Salem Journal reported Saturday that firefighters responded to a complaint the day after Christmas from neighbors who reported seeing smog around the plant and smelling a pungent odor. Firefighters then found fertilizing material smoldering, according to the Journal, and flooded it with water, concluding at the time that there was no risk of explosion.

Then, five weeks later, thousands of lives were affected by a fire so big and so dangerous that firefighters had to back off for their own safety.

A threat to marginalized neighbors

Kristen Minor, health manager for CleanAireNC, a North Carolina-based nonprofit that advocates for health of all state residents focusing on air pollution and climate change, says policies should be created to better protect neighborhoods around plants with hazardous substances. materials.

Often these facilities, like the Winston-Salem plant, are located in low-income and marginalized communities, underscoring the environmental dangers and long-standing disparities caused by the red line. The Winston-Salem plant is located in a low-income, predominantly African-American neighborhood surrounded by small businesses.

“Redlining, is a systemic process in which communities of color were prevented from accessing housing, particularly loans, which over time led black communities and other communities of color to be concentrated in areas where they had more exposure to industries that pollute the environment, the minor said. “So it's not a story that happened overnight. This is a systemic problem that has been going on for decades.”

The potentially combustible chemical inside the fertilizer plant, ammonium nitrate, was the source of the 2020 Beirut explosion that killed 135 people and injured more than 5,000. Although there were 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at that plant compared to 600 at the Winston-Salem facility, firefighters have said an explosion would destroy homes and small businesses in underserved communities.

A state of panic

Late in the afternoon of January 31, many Wake students panicked. Those who lived on and off campus began to flee the area. Some stayed with friends farther from the site, others booked hotels around Winston-Salem or in neighboring towns. Some returned to their homes out of state.

Wake Forest announced the cancellation of the next day's class just a minute after midnight.

Sukaina Maadir, a senior at Wake Forest, fled to Clemmons the night of the fire and booked a hotel there with friends. He recalled being on University Parkway, a major thoroughfare near Wake Forest, on the way back to his apartment on Deacon Place, when he saw smoke and fire trucks lining up. That was around 8:20 p.m. m.

"An hour had passed and I didn't hear anything and all of a sudden all the Wake alerts started coming in," Maadir said.

Initially, Maadir downplayed what he had seen and went about his night as usual. The most important thing on his mind was what to prepare for dinner.

"I didn't know what to do because the evacuation was voluntary, so my roommates and I started looking into past plant explosions and ammonium nitrate," he said. “We realized that if that exploded, the gases and things that would come out of it could be potentially harmful, so we decided to evacuate and go to campus.”

The Wake Forest campus covered in smoke from the fire. Photo Credit: Kenzey Tracy

“I took my contacts out because my eyes were sore, I masked twice and I was in a panic stage at the time,” Maadir recalled. . "I started to grab things in my room and put them in my backpack."

His eyes began to itch and water. He was worried about his health.

However, in her feverish restlessness, she hadn't packed as systematically as she might have.

The smoke had already reached parts of the Wake campus, Maadir said, leaving her feeling so unsettled that she decided it wouldn't be sure to spend the night there.

Others decided to stay, at least for a while. Edna Ulysse, a senior at Wake Forest and a resident counselor who lives on campus, was one of those students.

Late that Monday night, after the fire had been burning for a couple of hours, Ulysse's entire room was saturated with the smell of smoke. She described the smell as a mix between toxic chemicals and burning grass.

“I had to put my mask on when I went to sleep because my nose started to get a little sore,” Ulysse said.

Ulysse lives on the fourth floor of a North Campus building, where he normally has a view of Wait Chapel, a large parking lot, and some surrounding buildings. When she opened the shutters in the morning, she was taken aback. The smoke was so thick that I couldn't even make out the usual landmarks.

"That's when I realized I should have evacuated," he said. “My friends offered me to stay with them. At first, I wanted to wait and see how bad it got, but that morning I was too scared to drive in the fog,” said Ulysse.

"It wasn't until I got to the hotel that I realized I had packed my computer and a bag of Doritos," Maadir said, lamenting the essentials he had forgotten to grab. ]

CleanAire's Minor said that while many were focused on the immediate possibility of an explosion after the fire, she wanted to remind people of the threat posed by particulate matter.

“The particles are very fine particles, not visible to the naked eye, they are smaller than a hair particle,” Minor said. “There is no safe level of exposure to particles. For short-term exposure, those most at risk include pregnant women, children, and the elderly, as well as people with underlying conditions, such as any respiratory conditions that require staying indoors.”

In such situations, people should close all windows and doors if they're indoors, Minor said. Outdoor activities should be minimized, he suggested.

“Even for people who are healthy and may not have an underlying condition, particle exposure is a health hazard for everyone,” Minor said. “Short-term exposure could be cough, sore throat, shortness of breath. But long-term exposure can affect overall health. That could be an increased risk to reproductive health, an increased risk of preterm birth with low birth weight, for older people, an increased risk of heart attack or stroke, or any cardiovascular event.”

Wake Forest Campus covered in orange smoke from the fire. Photo credit: Kenzey Tracy

Minor said children are a very vulnerable population because their bodies are still developing and since they breathe air twice as fast as adults, they are exposed to more airborne pollutants.

Smoke and particulate matter can be spread beyond the initial perimeters, Minor added, by winds and other weather forces. Air Now shows the air quality in local areas while also showing what's happening across the state, the country, and the world.

The amount of particulate matter entering people's homes , Minor said, it depends on the condition of the home and the quality of the air filtration systems that can provide a roadblock.

"One thing you want to do on a regular basis is make sure your air filter is clean," Minor said. “Some apartment complexes may have a maintenance crew that regularly checks your air filter. If you live in an apartment or house where the air filtration system is not installed, we recommend that people consider buying a healthy air filter and a HEPA air filter.”

Students, parents question the university's response

In a press conference on February 2, Winston-Salem Fire Chief William Mayo said that if the plant were to explode, it could be one of the worst explosions caused by a fire in US history

Knowing that, some Wake Forest students are now wondering if the university should have been more concerned with short-term and long-term health impacts.

Eman Maadir, Sukaina Maadir's cousin and a junior at Wake Forest, recalled the initial confusion, the subsequent panic, and the ongoing questioning of whether administrators gave the best guidance.

Immediately after the fire broke out, Maadir was spending the night as he normally would. Then the smell of acid made her go to the window.

"When I looked outside, the sky was a gloomy shade of orange," he recalled. "At first I thought: 'Oh, the firefighters will control the fire.'"

He got into the shower. However, when he came out, the smell in his room was even worse. She found her roommate having a respiratory attack in the living room.

Resident advisors, who are located in the dorms to provide guidance to students when they need it, usually sit in the "RA pack " on the first floor of the student residences so that students can access them. Maadir went downstairs to seek advice, but the RA on duty had already evacuated, he said.

Later, he recalled that even then his throat was scratchy and his nose slightly tingling. "All I saw was swarms of people with travel bags coming out of the building," Maadir said. “Some people were wearing loose clothing and running out of the building. I heard some girls yelling and talking about booking a hotel and that's when I realized I might have to evacuate."

It was then that Maadir also decided to get a hotel room. She and five of her other friends huddled together in a room with two beds. He did not immediately tell his parents because he did not want to scare them.

“When I woke up, I saw that most of the major news organizations were reporting on the fire and I knew that my friends and I would be staying another night,” he said. “All this time, Wake Forest told us it was safe to stay on campus, but it wasn't. I also don't think they've been very helpful in finding housing for students, especially for students who had to evacuate Deacon Place apartments."

The Wednesday after the fire broke out, Wake Forest informed students that classes would resume on Thursday. There was an immediate outcry from students and parents. Many took to their social media accounts to ask for classes to be cancelled. A petition garnered more than 5,000 signatures on a campus where the undergraduate and graduate student population is about 7,500. Wake Forest quickly changed course, agreeing to cancel classes on Thursday and Friday as well.

In an email sent to all students, the university said that “we received additional information from students and families about the scope and degree of the challenges displaced people face. This understanding has informed a decision by academic leadership to cancel classes at Reynolda Campus, Wake Downtown, and Brookstown for the remainder of the week of Thursday, February 3 and Friday, February 4.”

University officials attempted to calm concerns about any environmental threat. "Furthermore, EPA air quality readings on and around campus continue to indicate that the air currently poses no threat to individual health and is safe to breathe," the email said. .

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

X

Republish this article

By the end of 2019, we will change our policy on reprinting our content.

You can use content from NC Health News under the following conditions:

  • You can copy and paste this html tracking code into our articles that you use, this small code snippet allows us to track how many people read our story.
  • Please do not reprint our stories without our authors, and include a live link to NC Health News below the author, like this: By Jane Doe North Carolina Health News

  • Finally, at the end of the story (whether web or print), include the text:

    North Carolina Health News is an independent statewide news organization, nonpartisan and nonprofit dedicated to cub r all things related to health care in North Carolina. Visit NCHN at northcarolinahealthnews.org. (on the web, this may be hyperlinked)

By Mariama Jallow, North Carolina Health News February 7, 2022

By Mariama Jallow  

On the night of January 31, a fertilizer plant with 600 tons of ammonium nitrate inside caught fire on Cherry Street in Winston-Salem, displacing 6,500 residents as emergency officials waited to see if the materials fuels would cause explosions.

The Winston Weaver Company fertilizer site is not far from Wake Forest University, a campus with nearly 7,600 students who will return to class this week with many questions after several chaotic days. Many wonder about the long-term effects of being near such a large fire.

North Carolina Environmental Advocate Krista Early released a statement congratulating the Winston-Salem Fire Department for their great caution while also encouraging a longer-term discussion on how to better protect communities near such facilities.

]

"This dangerous chemical poses an immediate threat to life in addition to unnecessary long-term risks to environmental health ," Early said. “Hopefully, none of our North Carolina teammates get hurt here. And when this crisis is over, we need to have a serious conversation about storing dangerous chemicals.”

Wake is 1.7 miles from the fertilizer plant, just a little outside the evacuation zone established by the fire department. Deacon Place, the university-owned off-campus apartments, are closer and students living there and in other housing within a mile of the plant were encouraged to seek alternative housing last week.

In an email sent on January 31, Wake Forest administrators told students that the ZSR Library, Wellness Center and Benson — home to the food court, mail services and meeting rooms — were open to those forced to leave their homes.

"You may want to bring a sleeping bag, pillow and/or blanket to stay comfortable if the evacuation lasts more than a short time," the email said.

At 10:03 p.m., the burning building collapsed and firefighters abandoned the fire because they did not have enough water to contain the fire amid the persistent risk of an explosion.

It is not clear what caused the fire. The Winston-Salem Journal reported on Saturday that firefighters had responded to a complaint the day after Christmas from neighbors who reported seeing smog around the plant and smelling a pungent odor. The firefighters then found fertilizing material burning without flame, according to the Journal, and flooded it with water, concluding at that time that there was no risk of explosion.

Then, five weeks later, thousands of lives were affected by a fire so big and so dangerous that firefighters had to back off for their own safety.

A threat to marginalized neighbors

Kristen Minor, Health Manager at CleanAireNCa North Carolina-based nonprofit that advocates for the health of all state residents by focusing on air pollution and climate change , says that policies should be created to better protect the neighborhoods surrounding plants with hazardous materials.

These facilities, like the Winston-Salem plant, are often located in low-income and marginalized communities, underscoring the environmental dangers and long-standing disparities caused by the red line . The Winston-Salem plant is in a low-income, predominantly African-American neighborhood surrounded by small businesses.

“Redlining, is a systemic process in which communities of color were prevented from accessing housing, particularly loans, which over time led black communities and other communities of color to concentrate in areas where they had more exposure to industries that pollute the environment, the minor said. “So it's not a story that happened overnight. This is a systemic problem that has been going on for decades.”

The potentially combustible chemical inside the fertilizer plant, ammonium nitrate, was the source of the 2020 Beirut explosion that killed 135 people and injured more than 5,000. Although there were 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at that plant compared to 600 at the Winston-Salem facility, firefighters have said an explosion would destroy homes and small businesses in surrounding marginalized communities.

A state of panic

Late in the afternoon of January 31, many Wake students panicked. Those who lived on and off campus began to flee the area. Some stayed with friends farther from the site, others booked hotels around Winston-Salem or in neighboring towns. Some returned to their homes out of state.

Wake Forest announced the cancellation of the next day's class just a minute after midnight.

Sukaina Maadir, a senior at Wake Forest, fled to Clemmons the night of the fire and booked a hotel there with friends. He recalled being on University Parkway, a major thoroughfare near Wake Forest, on the way back to his apartment on Deacon Place, when he saw smoke and fire trucks lining up. That was around 8:20 p.m. m.

"An hour had passed and I didn't hear anything and suddenly all the Wake alerts started coming in," Maadir said.

Initially, Maadir downplayed what he had seen and went on with his night as usual. The most important thing on his mind was what to prepare for dinner.

"I didn't know what to do because the evacuation was voluntary, so my roommates and I began to investigate past plant explosions and ammonium nitrate," he said. “We realized that if that exploded, the gases and things that would come out of it could be potentially harmful, so we decided to evacuate and go to campus.”

An image of Wait Chapel barely visible due to smoke from the fertilizer plant fire blanketing the Wake Forest campus" class="wp-image-37524" />
<figcaption> The Wake Forest campus covered in smoke from the fire Photo Credit: Kenzey Tracy </figcaption></figure></div><p> "I took out my contact lenses because my eyes were irritated, I masked myself twice and at that time I was in a panic stage," Maadir recalled. "I started to grab things in my room and put them in my backpack."</p><p> His eyes began to itch and tear. He was worried about his health.</p><p> However, in his feverish restlessness, he had not packed as systematically as he could have.</p><p> The smoke had already reached parts of the Wake campus, Maadir said, leaving her feeling so uneasy that she decided it would not be safe to spend the night there.</p><p> Others decided to stay, at least for a while. Edna Ulysse, a senior at Wake Forest and a resident counselor who lives on campus, was one of those students.</p><p> Late that Monday night, after the fire had been burning for a couple of hours, Ulysse's entire room was saturated with the smell of smoke. She described the smell as a mix between toxic chemicals and burning grass.</p><p> "I had to put on the mask when I went to sleep because my nose started to get a little irritated," said Ulysse.</p><p> Ulysse lives on the fourth floor of a North Campus building, where he usually has a view of the Wait Chapel, a large parking lot, and some surrounding buildings. When she opened the shutters in the morning, she was taken aback. The smoke was so thick that I couldn't even make out the usual landmarks.</p><p> "That's when I realized I should have evacuated," he said. “My friends offered me to stay with them. At first, I wanted to wait and see how bad it got, but that morning I was too scared to drive in the fog," Ulysse said.</p><p> "It wasn't until I got to the hotel that I realized I had packed my computer and a bag of Doritos," said Maadir, lamenting the essentials he had forgotten to grab.</p><h4 id=The invisible threat

Minor from CleanAire said that while many were focused on the immediate possibility of an explosion after the fire, she wanted to remind people of the threat posed by particulate matter.

"The particles are very fine particles, not visible to the naked eye, they are smaller than a hair particle," said Minor. “There is no safe level of exposure to particles. For short-term exposure, those most at risk include pregnant women, children, and the elderly, as well as people with underlying conditions, such as any respiratory conditions that require staying indoors.”

In such situations, people should close all windows and doors if they are indoors, Minor said. Outdoor activities should be minimized, he suggested.

"Even for people who are healthy and may not have an underlying condition, exposure to particles is a health hazard for everyone," Minor said. “Short-term exposure could be cough, sore throat, shortness of breath. But long-term exposure can affect overall health. That could be an increased risk to reproductive health, an increased risk of preterm birth with low birth weight, for older people, an increased risk of heart attack or stroke, or any cardiovascular event.”

Photo of some buildings on the Wake Forest campus Orange smoke from the fertilizer plant fire makes it hard to see the buildings in the distance" class="wp-image-37525" />
<figcaption> Wake Forest campus covered in orange smoke from the fire. Photo credit: Kenzey Tracy</figcaption></figure></div><p> Minor said that children are a very vulnerable population because their bodies are still developing and since they breathe air twice as fast as adults, they are exposed to more pollutants in the air.</p><p> Smoke and particles can spread beyond the initial perimeters, Minor added, by winds and other weather forces. <a
href=Air Now muestra la calidad del aire en las áreas locales al mismo tiempo que muestra lo que sucede en todo el estado, el país y en todo el mundo.&nbsp;&nbsp;

La cantidad de material particulado que ingresa a los hogares de las personas, dijo Minor, depende de la condición del hogar y la calidad de los sistemas de filtración de aire que pueden proporcionar una barricada.

“Una cosa que quieres hacer regularmente es asegurarte de que tu filtro de aire esté limpio”, dijo Minor. “Algunos complejos de apartamentos pueden tener un equipo de mantenimiento que revisa regularmente su filtro de aire. Si vive en un departamento o en una casa donde el sistema de filtración de aire no está instalado, recomendamos que las personas consideren comprar un filtro de aire saludable y un filtro de aire HEPA”.

Estudiantes, padres cuestionan la respuesta de la universidad

En una conferencia de prensa el 2 de febrero, el jefe de bomberos de Winston-Salem, William Mayo, dijo que si la planta explotara, podría ser una de las peores explosiones causadas por un incendio en la historia de EE. UU.

Al saber eso, algunos estudiantes de Wake Forest ahora se preguntan si la universidad debería haberse preocupado más por los impactos en la salud a corto y largo plazo.

Eman Maadir, primo de Sukaina Maadir y junior en Wake Forest, recordó la confusión inicial, el pánico posterior y el cuestionamiento actual sobre si los administradores dieron la mejor orientación.

Inmediatamente después de que estalló el incendio, Maadir estaba pasando la noche como lo haría normalmente. Entonces el olor a ácido la hizo ir hacia la ventana.

“Cuando miré hacia afuera, el cielo tenía un tono sombrío de naranja”, recordó. “Al principio pensé: ‘Oh, los bomberos controlarán el fuego’”.

Se metió en la ducha. Sin embargo, cuando salió, el olor en su habitación era aún peor. Encontró a su compañera de cuarto teniendo un ataque respiratorio en la sala de estar.

Los asesores residentes, que se encuentran en los dormitorios para brindar orientación a los estudiantes cuando la necesitan, generalmente se sientan en el "paquete RA" en el primer piso de las residencias estudiantiles para que los estudiantes puedan acceder a ellos. Maadir bajó las escaleras para pedir consejo, pero el RA de turno ya había evacuado, dijo.

Más tarde, recordó que incluso entonces tenía la garganta áspera y un ligero hormigueo en la nariz.

“Todo lo que vi fueron enjambres de personas con bolsas de viaje saliendo del edificio”, dijo Maadir. “Algunas personas llevaban ropa suelta y salían corriendo del edificio. Escuché a algunas chicas gritar y hablar sobre reservar un hotel y fue entonces cuando me di cuenta de que podría tener que evacuar”.

Fue entonces cuando Maadir también decidió conseguir una habitación de hotel. Ella y cinco de sus otros amigos se apiñaron en una habitación con dos camas. No se lo contó de inmediato a sus padres porque no quería asustarlos.

“Cuando me desperté, vi que la mayoría de las principales organizaciones de noticias informaban sobre el incendio y supe que mis amigos y yo nos quedaríamos otra noche”, dijo. “Durante todo este tiempo, Wake Forest nos dijo que era seguro permanecer en el campus, pero no fue así. I also do not think they were very helpful in finding students places to stay, especially students who had to evacuate Deacon Place apartments.”&nbsp;

On the Wednesday after the fire broke out, Wake Forest informed students that classes would resume on Thursday. There was an immediate outcry from students and parents. Many turned to their social media accounts to call for the cancellation of classes. A petition gained more than 5,000 signatures on a campus where the undergraduate and graduate student population is about 7,500.

Wake Forest quickly reversed course and agreed to cancel classes Thursday and Friday, too.

In an email sent to all students, the university said “we received additional information from students and families regarding the scope and degree of challenges faced by those displaced. This understanding has informed a decision by academic leadership to cancel classes on the Reynolda Campus, Wake Downtown and Brookstown for the remainder of the week Thursday, Feb. 3, and Friday, Feb. 4.”

University officials tried to soothe concerns about any environmental threats.“In addition, EPA air-quality readings on and near campus continue to indicate that the air currently poses no threat to individual health and is safe to breathe,” the email stated.

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

1

Enlace de origen

Be First to Comment

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *