Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.
READ MORE: For more Journal coverage on the aftermath of the Winston Weaver fire, point your smartphone camera at the code, then tap the link.
It's been more than eight months since about 6,500 Winston-Salem residents narrowly escaped a potential environmental and public safety disaster after the Winston Weaver Co. Inc. fertilizer plant caught fire Jan. 31 and took days to extinguish.
“The fact of the matter is that, 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,” fire chief William “Trey” Mayo said in February.
With the official cause labeled as undetermined by city fire officials on July 29, there remain many unresolved questions, including state building codes that allowed the 80-year-old plus plant to operate without sprinklers and alarms.
Drone photograph of the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant fire site, Saturday, Feb. 5. An N.C. Labor Department report released Aug. 1 determined that hundreds of tons of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate were improperly stored at the 65,423-square-foot plant.
Yet, there was no legislation introduced during the primary portion of the 2022 session to address state building codes in the context of the plant fire.
There was no comment on the subject from the legislative offices of Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland.
"I have had no questions or conversations at all from anyone locally or at the state," said Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth. "I must guess that this is at the earliest a 2023 session discussion."
An N.C. Labor Department report released Aug. 1 determined that hundreds of tons of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate were improperly stored at the 65,423-square-foot plant.
Investigators also determined that wooden storage bins were not adequate to keep ammonium nitrate from escaping or other substances from entering.
Yet, there have been no regulatory changes proposed by the state Insurance Department or the state Building Code Council to alter or end the grandfathering of buildings, such as the Winston Weaver plant.
Mike Causey, the state Insurance commissioner, said on July 28 he is "not seeing much at all" in terms of the plant fire generating momentum to change state building codes.
"With all the media exposure that (Winston Weaver) plant fire gained, you would think it would have led to more public attention," Causey said.
"If it is a hot-button issue, nothing has come forward to me and (complaints) have not come up — to my knowledge — before the state Building Code Council."
Causey said the plant fire "was a close call, for certain."
"But, it was fairly short-lived once it was all settled."
Gov. Roy Cooper listens as Winston-Salem Fire Chief Trey Mayo speaks at a news conference about the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant fire.
Winston-Salem Fire Department officials ordered a voluntary evacuation within the one-mile radius around the 8.46-acre site at 4440 N. Cherry St.
The reasoning: an estimated 500 tons of combustible ammonium nitrate and nearly another 100 tons in an adjacent rail car.
Residents were allowed to go back home when the restricted area was reduced to a 1/8-mile radius. The fire appears to have affected about 36 employees.
A plume of smoke from the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer fire drifts west, Tuesday morning, Feb. 1.
Some Triad legislators were hopeful in February that the General Assembly would go beyond a deep sigh of relief of no injuries to enact building code changes, particularly for those that contain hazardous materials.
With the plant being constructed in 1939 and opening in January 1940, the original 1936 code still applies to four of the campus’ five buildings. Sprinklers were not required until the 1953 code amendment, and only for buildings two stories or higher.
A city inspection report dated Dec. 27 indicates that no violations/hazards were found at the plant.
But additional notes at the bottom of the two-page report say that “parts of the building are in poor condition;” note that an “unmounted extinguisher (was corrected) during inspection”; and that a discussion about “extension cords being for temporary use only” was had.
Because of those inspections, the fire department knew the company stored ammonium nitrate on site and had a “pre-fire” plan already in place.
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines said in February that the plant “has been inspected. It’s operating as safely as possible."
"There’s no legal way we could force them to move.”
Part of the local inaction may be related to the deliberate steps being taken by Winston-Salem officials in determining its own environmental and zoning changes, if any.
"Each month, we have discussed a different topic related to the fire (i.e. zoning, building/fire code, etc.)," assistant city manager Aaron King said. "We will likely be concluding these discussions with the committee in the next couple of months."
"I suspect the committee may instruct staff to pursue any needed changes that we have discovered as a result of the fire response.
"They have already asked staff to prepare a zoning text amendment dealing with industrial use with high levels of volatility," King said. "This should be going to the Planning Board for consideration soon."
The lack of legislative and regulatory action hasn't been surprising.
Several members of the Triad legislative delegation said while the plant campus still was smoldering that they were taking a wait-and-see approach on whether the fire could be the impetus for amending state Building Code regulations.
Sen. Paul Lowe, D-Forsyth, said in February that “we are continuing attempts to understand the fire."
“There can be no concrete statements or answers to questions concerning the situation until the completion of the investigation and its discoveries are made known.”
Also in February: the county’s four Republican state legislators said in a joint statement that "we have been in contact with officials about the fire and continue to monitor it.” The legislators are Sen. Joyce Krawiec and Reps. Lee Zachary, Jeff Zenger and Lambeth.
“Since it is still an active fire and an investigation is ongoing, it is too early to make any decisions about changing state laws or regulations.”
Zachary said in a separate comment to the Winston-Salem Journal in February that "when a cause is determined, then there might be a need for legislation."
“In today’s world, there are lots of hazards in certain manufacturing processes.
“Once the cause is determined, I feel certain the Insurance Department and our very able (Insurance) Commissioner Mike Causey will take appropriate action.”
In July, Zachary said that "I don’t know what will be discussed in 2023, but, to my knowledge, there is nothing being discussed in the remainder of 2022."
"I am unaware of any legislation that has been introduced to address the fertilizer fire situation."
Rep. Jon Hardister, R-Guilford, said in July that "I am definitely interested in the subject if other members of the legislature would like to work on it."
The state’s regulatory building codes have been amended at least 18 times by the legislature since being established in 1936.
The latest formal amendment occurred in 2012, with the current Building Code being in place since 2015.
The key element is that facilities are required to be in compliance with the code in effect when it was built.
The pattern has been to grandfather older facilities, rather than require upgrading to meet new business code standards.
Winston-Salem fire investigator Rick McIntyre said in February that the 1936 code had very little in it to control how chemicals are kept on the site.
“The building codes today have a lot more detail and requirements in regard to chemical processes and chemical storage,” McIntyre said. “Now, it is much more detailed, and that is what they would be required to meet if they built there today.”
The goal with grandfathering is limiting infrastructure upkeep and renovation expenses for older buildings to keep them viable as competitive options to new construction.
There is nothing, however, that prohibits building owners and operators from voluntarily bringing older buildings up to the latest Business Code standards.
“The fertilizer plant fire definitely raises questions and concerns about the safety of a building that involves highly explosive materials,” said Dave Simpson, president and chief executive of Carolinas AGC (Association of General Contractors).
“However, the idea of requiring all older buildings to come up to modern code, when they were built many years ago without such codes in place, would be costly and impractical at a time when the building codes are constantly changing.”
The state Building Code limits what local and state elected officials can tell residents who live around plants containing hazardous materials.
Oftentimes, those limits are based on federal building and environmental codes adopted by local and state government entities that cover companies' trade secrets or proprietary materials.
Hazardous materials are required by Congress to be disclosed to local emergency planning committees and designated local elected officials, typically with confidentiality agreements attached — and not to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
According to federal environmental codes related to the trade secrets section, in some instances, "the information is not required to be disclosed, or otherwise made available, to the public under any other federal or state law."
The company is required to provide proof that "disclosure of the information is likely to cause substantial harm to the competitive position of each person."
An example is that by making certain on-campus warehousing or inventory information available to the public, a competitor could determine the financial and production status of a rival and adjust their planning accordingly.
The company also is required to show evidence that "the chemical identify is not readily discoverable through reverse engineering."
Another factor is that by keeping confidential the use or storing of hazardous materials, it has the potential to lessen the incentive to trespass onto campuses with those materials.
"State legislators oftentimes defend local prerogatives as opposed to statewide environmental rules," said Stan Meiburg, executive director for the Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest University.
"The (N.C.) legislature has been sympathetic in a bipartisan way because it is more of a structural, public-policy issue, so the local building code actually governs what you can do or not do."
Ammonium nitrate has been the subject of decades of national debate involving the federal Clean Air Act as to what level should be required to be disclosed to the public, Meiburg said.
Yet, Congress has preferred these kind of environmental hazard regulations to be a matter of state and local decision-making, rather than federal.
"There have been concerns that farmers would be subject to larger standards of controls" if the amounts of ammonium nitrate were to be more heavily regulated by the federal government, Meiburg said.
Meiburg said there's an economic and environmental development theory that as properties, such as the Winston Weaver campus, gain new uses they will be brought up to modern buildings codes in the process.
"But, that can take a long time to occur," Meiburg said.
"Local decision-makers in general are reluctant to do things that would impose a cost on the city or county, or to require individual company or business owners to make additional investment in their business."
Meiburg said that "you can make a pretty good public-policy argument" that investments in older building safety features can promote community safety on the whole.
"But, where that line is (in terms of capital investment) is a very case-specific matter.
"There's the 1-10-100 rule in business that for every $1 spent to prevent something, it tends to cost $10 to catch it through inspection and cost $100 to clean it up when the incident occurs."
"Companies tend to not want to spend the $1 for prevention because they think nothing is going to happen," Meiburg said.
As a result, Meiburg said, companies "externalizes certain costs onto the community because it basically imposes that risk onto the community."
"It's hard to get into people's minds enough to say 'I'm going to take my money and invest it in something that may not have an immediate direct benefit, but down the road it's going to save people's lives."
Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, has said the Winston Weaver plant fire brought to mind the hazardous waste plant fire in Apex in October 2006.
She praised the swift response to the Apex fire that culminated in the General Assembly passing House Bill 36 in June 2007, which made several major changes to how hazardous waste materials are handled in North Carolina.
“The NCGA immediately jumped into action and passed legislation that made these types of facilities safer,” Harrison said.
“It is not clear that it would apply to this fertilizer facility, but it could be that the legislature may react similarly and take action to address deficiencies.”
The chemical fire on the EQ Industrial Services campus produced what The Associated Press reported as “a thundering series of explosions that filled the overnight sky with fireballs and a spooky yellow haze.”
The fire began about 10 p.m. on Oct. 6, 2006, prompting officials to go on local television begging people to stay away from the city’s downtown.
Officials initially urged about half of the Apex’s 32,000 residents to evacuate, then expanded the request as a dangerous plume of smoke and chemicals started to grow.
No serious injuries were reported. Wake County officials said that 44 people went to emergency rooms, most of them complaining of respiratory problems.
Similar to the Winston Weaver plant fire, several hundred people took shelter at area schools or other venues. Others stayed with friends or at nearby hotels. Nearby schools in Apex were closed the next day.
AP reported the EQ plant handled an array of industrial waste, from paints to solvents, and housed chlorine, pesticides, herbicides, sulfur and fertilizer. The volatile mix led firefighters to take extra care over several days.
An initial assessment found that the building had collapsed onto itself.
In March 2006, the then-N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources warned of a potential disaster at the plant site.
EQ had failed to “maintain and operate the plant to minimize the possibility of a sudden or non-sudden release of hazardous waste ... which could threaten human health or the environment,” the department reported when it issued a $32,000 fine for six violations.
AP reported EQ paid more than $400,000 in penalties, fees and reimbursements related to the October 2006 fire. In October 2007, the company relinquished its permit for the Apex site.
Federal officials released a report that determined that the EQ Industrial Services Inc. plant in Apex lacked tools to control fires. The plant didn’t have firewalls and suppression systems to stop the fire from spreading, and officials said that it wasn’t prepared for after-hours fires.
In April 2008, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board called for a new national fire code for hazardous-waste processing plants based on its study of the Apex chemical fire.
Simpson said the Winston Weaver fire could present “good timing to take a look at buildings that pose very serious public safety risks with the idea of preventing another such fertilizer plant explosion in the future.”
Mitch Kokai, senior policy analyst with conservative think tank John Locke Foundation, said it's possible lawmakers could address the fire and state building codes "since legislative rules would allow leaders to insert items they want to address into conference reports."
"But, I suspect that this issue would advance this year only if lawmakers secured widespread support for a bill requiring minimal discussion and debate."
"Otherwise, this is likely to be an issue for advocates to pursue in 2023.”
The fortunate outcome of no deaths or injuries related to the blazing fire could lead to legislative inaction, said Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, an economics professor at Winston-Salem State University.
“Unfortunately, what ends up causing action are fatal disasters that throw a bright light on a situation,” Madjd-Sadjadi said.
“When you have a near miss, it typically disappears from the political view fairly quickly.
“In addition, there may be some degree of systemic racism at play here in that when poor or minority areas are the ones primarily being affected, there is a lot less political will to get things done.”
Journal reporters John Deem and Wesley Young contributed to this article.
This is part of a series on the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant fire and its aftermath.
Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Drone photograph of the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant fire site, Saturday, Feb. 5. An N.C. Labor Department report released Aug. 1 determined that hundreds of tons of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate were improperly stored at the 65,423-square-foot plant.
Gov. Roy Cooper listens as Winston-Salem Fire Chief Trey Mayo speaks at a news conference about the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant fire.
A plume of smoke from the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer fire drifts west, Tuesday morning, Feb. 1.
READ MORE: For more Journal coverage on the aftermath of the Winston Weaver fire, point your smartphone camera at the code, then tap the link.
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.