As a firefighter, I’m very disappointed in the sprinkler system in this complex. I question the design and engineering of it, seeing how ineffective it was at containing the fire long enough for the FD to extinguish the flames before it became a conflagration. We need to revisit the engineering of sprinklers in large warehouses to ensure threatening is enough water flow and volume to keep this from happening again. The only thing that could overpower an engineered sprinkler system this way that could be legally stored in a warehouse like this would be lithium ion batteries. Once they thermally react, it’s impossible to stop them. There may be a need to be create regulations regarding those batteries, and segregating where they can be stored. This fire has lithium ion battery all over it, in my opinion.
Giant warehouses filled with cardboard boxes with cheap chinese junk, toilet paper and clothing burn down. No matter how effective a sprinkler is, it cannot be expected to completely extinguish a blaze this size. I know, let's create more useless regulations to make everything even more expensive!
@@nerdypappy The job of a fire suppression system is to contain a fire until firefighters arrive. We know how to store commodities and protect them with AS to do that economically often from lessons learned in other major fires. The paper products you reference are easy to protect. Modern challenges are the huge amount of plastics (basically gasoline in solid form) that we find in so many goods and AS design has changed to manage that. Aerosols are another challenge (proper storage is key there). Something is different in this fire. Either a change in commodities, improper storage, or malfunctioning of the AS. The investigation will tell. I hope it is made public.
all the ware house employees were fired and robots took over. with no one around a fire started and the robots kept working and no one put out the fire :)
As a fire prevention specialist my first quest is a building with 1000 employees and no one saw the fire start. Typically, these operations are HPR highly protected risks! Were there no automatic sprinklers . The chief indicated they had to resort to tanker operations for water. Were there no fire pumps and tank? Certainly the building and goods are insured, but the source, the slow alarm and many other questions Must be answered! Right now 1000 personnel are out of work. That adds greatly to the loss!!
I have seen some fires that between the loss of life and jobs impacted so many. One fireman decided he wasn't getting enough actions lit a few and one such place destroyed records dating back to 1600's for the town of Hempstead,NY 11550 area and some other records destroyed. That fireman destroyed priceless records. I believe he lit a commercial factory and saw the aftermath. There was a propane forklift right behind a garage door.
The employees are being reassigned to other places until the facility is replaced. Walmart is a huge company with lots of facilities to staff, so this will be fairly trivial. With over 750k employees in the US, finding someplace to use 1k of them is no big deal.
Walmart, like other places, are begging for workers. Where there are distribution warehouses, there are also Walmarts. They'll be relocated until the place is rebuilt.
There are several _much_ worse than this, as bad as it looks. Some plant manager doesn't want to spend $0.03 per employee for a recommended safety measure and a month later there's a preventable, catastrophic accident that costs lives, destroys half the plant, injures dozens in the nearby community, and costs hundreds of millions in litigation and cleanup. I refer you to the USCSB channel here on YT. They review workplace disasters based on official investigations. It's a great channel and a real eye opener for anyone working in an environment like this.
@B Products that you would have purchased because they're cheaper than if made in North America or Europe. Products that the Chinese have already been paid for. Products covered by insurance, whose premiums will now reflect the financial cost.
This is what you get when large developers overwhelm small town councils with willy nilly expansion. Small town inspectors have no idea what they're looking at. Obviously the fire suppression system was inadequate and there's a complete lack of firewalls. Ok if the building is empty but the packaging alone in a full warehouse would make a hell of a fire. Very lucky there wasn't an extensive loss of life here as well.
You don't put firewalls spread through a large warehouse like that, just between the main space and the areas where people are going to dwell a while, like breakrooms, restrooms, and offices. Everywhere you see roof intact there was a firewall, and the outer walls. Also, sprinklers are not meant to completely extinguish a fire, but to suppress them long enough for people to escape, and make eventual containment easier. The sprinklers ruin everything under them, so they don't protect inventory. I would say since all 1k people got out safely, their fire suppression and containment systems worked well.
I was thinking the same. Piles of crap, I mean cheap Chinese products, are stacked to the ceiling in such a large and open warehouse. Something started the fire, more stuff catches fire, the temperature increases as it spreads, and their she blows. I think it's called a flashover.
@@ethanexploring Walmart lost millions or more and insurance probably won't make up for the profits they lost so they'll be raising the prices even more everywhere to make up for it. Money is already tight for most people, rising prices is another weight on their shoulders. Think of others every once in awhile, Scrooge.
At least Walmart now has an "excuse" why they will be raising prices. They will be making a lot more profit from this than what they lost. "Never let a good crisis go to waste." --- Sir Winston Churchill
Don't worry the owners are calling the insurance company. But the people who are going to suffer are all of the employees. God bless you all and keep the faith.
How will they suffer? Walmart has already stated that employees of this facility will be paid for 40 hours plus overtime. Walmart will also attempt to place the displaced employees in other warehouses and/or stores.
As has been previously mentioned above the warehouse was very likely designed to NFPA or FM Global fire protection standards; standards developed from experience over many decades. Providing the occupancy was protected by sprinkler systems designed for the occupancy this loss should not have occurred. ESFR systems are designed to suppress a fire while control mode systems are designed to control a fire until the public fire department arrives to extinguish the fire. IMO the only way this fire got out of control was if the site's water supply was compromised e.g., if the systems required a fire pump the fire pump was inoperative or became inoperative, a water control valve was closed, foreign material in the sprinkler piping, etc. As mentioned above, it is surprising not to see an MFL (Maximum Foreseeable Loss) 4-hour firewall on the site for the values that were no doubt present. Insurer's frequently call for an MFL wall to limit the extent of a fire loss.
The 1000 employees were evacuated ahead of time. It was intentional. Just like all the other warehouses. I can't speculate which party. So much is happening to buildings. One party is getting rid of or one party is taking out what's going on.
Lithium and magnesium; two most active metals, and there may be others metals too,but these metals can be handled easily at room temperature. But get them hot enough to ignite and all bets are off.
I was at school when this happened. Some kids were saying "Walmart must be having some fire sales today." And some kids were confused until one looked out the window and there was a fire in the distance. When we ended up getting home sure enough, on the tv there was a fire on the exact same building. Pretty glad nobody got hurt.
Just looking at the drone footage that building would not have pass a CofO without having separations and auto closing overhead doors to help prevent the spread of fire.
There was, something clearly went very wrong. There was a tilt-up firewall dividing it in half. I've been in a lot of these and they typically even have a deluge/water curtain at the firewall.
@@mikedacey5944 you are wrong, if you watched the fire chiefs interview you would know that there were indeed fire walls, as they are required in building code for buildings like this. But by the time the fire reached them it had too much heat and power behind it.
They probably didn't turn conveyors off fire doors probably didn't close did sprinklers have on site water tanks and pond resavoirs . Probably several problems in a chain of events fire is evil and fast. After the investigation ????? .K mart early eighties. Morrisville Pa lost a warehouse. Rebuilt twice as big we took FIRE very serious after that
Well I believe after looking at the footage on the drone that that fire would not got out of control if it had sprinkling systems in it which I believe is one of the state of Indiana's building codes.
It did, something clearly went wrong or they were overwhelmed. It's not unheard of. Same thing happened to a tilt-up fully sprinkled warehouse in Bartlett, IL last month.
the fire chief of plainfield has said the the sprinkler system was properly working when they got there, my feeling is that something was stored where it wasnt supposed to be, and it overwhelmed the sprinker system.
@@und3adxl3g3nd3 Apparently, based on the recorded dispatch calls, the fire department shut off the fire pumps for the sprinkler systems before the fire was100% under control. Then opened up the warehouse. The onslaught of fresh air caused the fire to get out of control very quickly and since the fire pumps were shut off and take time to get back into service, there was no help from the sprinkler system after that.
I live near Passaic, NJ and several months ago there was a fire in a warehouse adjacent to one with chlorine and other pool chemicals stored. The firefighters had to be very careful not to expose themselves to deadly chemical fumes. Perhaps part of the problem here was due to such risks. Also the truss roof construction made it too dangerous for firefighters to go inside due to fear of structural collapse of roof structures that did happen.
@@spudman12382 Yes, it happened a few years ago, one of the biggest fires in years in the area. I went by it a few days after the fire. What a mess. They were able to restart some operations from the remains of the plant. The owners plan to replace the plant on the site of the old one. It is/was a major user of recycled papers.
Yeah, it's tilt-up, they can literally throw one of these up in about 6 months. This should be even quicker since all of the infrastructure is already in place and may even be able to reuse the footings.
I wonder who the insurance carriers are and whether or not they had recent inspections and if they had any issues to resolve. Except for a small area, did the fire stay within the walls of the structure? It looks controlled.
Politicians don't care. Money is more important. Insurance just made a few folks millionaires and it will be rebuilt. Happened in NJ few years back. Walls collapsed etc. Whatever. Cost goes to taxpayers and shoppers.
My first thought was why didn't they move the trailers away? But the docks likely have modern locks that prevent them from pulling away without someone inside and power to release them.
Looks like the fire got ahead of the sprinkler system. Whether that was a design related issue or an operational problem by the firefighters remains to be seen. Modern early suppression sprinklers can provide a lot of water, for a fairly short time, in a focused location. Usually that works, but if it doesn't, the sprinklers have shot their wad if they don't have a massive firewater supply connected. Failed early suppression, multiple ignition points, rapid spread, and/or the firefighters shutting the sprinklers down too soon and allowing reignition are all possibilities to be investigated. Also, the massive roof system damage whit relatively minimal wreckage points to a very high fuel load of rapid burning material under the main portion of the roof - possibly lots of paper goods and plastics. The sprinkler system did function to the degree that all workers were able to evacuate safely.
I question the suppression system of this building, its incredible no one was injured or killed. There need to be more than about parge structures like this, something wrong happened here.
This building met or exceeded code when it was completed in 2016 and that's still basically the same code today. I've been in a lot of these. They do everything right with the fire but every now and then this sort of thing can happen. That's why it's called fire "suppression" and not "extinguishment". Everybody got out, it did its job.
Robs post is spot on. The engineering of the sprinkler system is where to look first. Second was wallmart storing products that they should not have. Third what was the city's water pressure. Four are all valves turned the way they should been. Five did wallmart want it to burn. That's a 100 million dollar plus CLAME. Where were the fire hoses at inside the WEAR house. If any. Buildings that large should have reels of 2" hose inside. It's easy to see the sprinklers failed. But everyone did get out alive. Now they have to follow the money trail. What firms didn't want to buy back there goods.
Either the sprinkler system was shut down or not working which in the year 2022 seems imposterus and the proximity of the fire stations something or someone knows something. A million Square foot building don't go up like that without some help.
It happens fairly regularly. Sprinklers are designed to buy time to allow occupants to escape. They cannot be economically fit to suppress all fires. It just happened last month in Bartlett, IL to a similar warehouse storing documents and has happened to other Walmart and Amazon DCs.
@@craigjensen6853 I don't see how that fire got that far with a fire sprinkler system and the on hand extinguishers in the building without being suppressed being that is a million square feet under roof. Either there were accelerants or someone waited way too long. The fire stations are not that far away from that building. Maybe a lack of judgment. Most buildings with that many employees have an escape procedure along with a safety supervisor .With a thousand employees it makes it hard for a fire to start and nobody notice.But with everything Walmart these days and the lack of leadership and management and the way stores are run now it doesn't surprise me.
That is a massive warehouse! Usually there is firewalls between sections of the building. I don't see but one firewall. A building that size should have more than one firewall. I've been in warehousing for 25 years now. Never seen a warehouse built in that floor plain. Warehouses have a massive sprinkler systems as well. It just seems odd that all the safety measures didn't work to minimize the fire. Makes you wonder if the building was even up to code. Our building go's through inspection quite often. I'm sure there's going to be a very large investigation from every level; building code, inspections, Plainfield and it's political duty on enforcement of code, and on and on. There is 56 thousand jobs in Plainfield and I'm sure other companies are going to be courageous to know. Safety is a big deal in warehousing and Safety comes before production. Was this facility overlooking Safety measures to meet production do to the covid crisis on the market. Thank God no one was injured. But this should be a big awakening for companies and logistics and warehousing.
I work in a 1.2 million square foot warehouse and we have no fire walls. Fully monitored and sprinklered. So I'm guessing you're a little out of date. Most large distribution centers today do not use firewalls.
@@jamescostello6529 I must be getting to old, lol. My plant isn't that big. I still drive a old model Raymond lift truck. I work at a smaller FedEx logistics warehouse. All the facilities I have worked at had fire walls and doors for tall lifts.
@@tvviewer4500 I've been working at FedEx for about 8 years now. Before that I worked at Belkin and Woods industries. All those facilities had fire walls and special doors for tall lifts. I drove a turret fork truck.
@@NewMexicoCountrySongs are you an arson investigator or a Fire Marshall if not then shut up you have no right to comment when you don't know what are are talking about
Where was the warehouse sprinkler system? Why did no one fight the fire with the wall mounted fire hose systems put there to control initial outbreaks? Smells like a corporate fire.
Well they damn well better find my pair of boots and my lawn mower battery that I had to order that was supposed to be delivered yesterday but still nothing today has arrived at my front door........
iam so amaze nobody got hurt or lost their life with over 1000 employees plus truck drivers and yard employees got hurt cause i been at this warehouse picking up preloaded trailer and i have to tell you this is one busy warehouse as much as some people like or dislike walmart they did a hell of job getting everyone out safe i heard of smaller fires and in the past and some of lost lives and got hurt but 1000 employees and not one person was hurt
@@ducewags I don't know , ask them I was an electrician for 45 years and I've seen dozens of factories and warehouses exactly like that. Some have fiberglass insulation, but fiberglass is not flammable either. So I have no clue what you are trying to say. Now if it had been a hot tar and felt roof that would be different but looking at the unburnt parts, there was no tar and felt.
@@MichaelClark-uw7ex Walmart uses styrofoam over the steel roofing for insulating and sealing all of it's buildings. And as we all know, that stuff burns hot and black just like we see in the clips of the fire.
In view of the rapid spread of that fire that building was constructed to minimal if any County or State Fire Codes! I find it hard to believe that building had fire sprinklers, or Standby' Fire hoses. Fire Sprinklers are typical in California State area truck/trailer loading docks. In short.....the building wasn't constructed to typical large population counties standards. (But Hey! That's how we were able to keep the prices low at checkout!)
I was waiting for a day like this . All that carbord and no firehouse cabinet at all locations for sprinkler system is USELESS . That is not the only warehouse that is like this .. 🚑🚑🚑🚑
The same thing can happen at a Amazon fulfillment center , the only thing is twice the size and three stores inside . I never seen a fire hose cabinet and the springler system's are mounted so high almost 60 to 70 feet from the ground and the shelving acting like a roof keeping the water from getting to the fire !!!!! WOw 🚑🚑🚂🚂🚂
What a sight! I don’t think anything can be rebuilt. It will all have to be demolished. Those trailers that caught the blaze will have to be scrapped. Everything is irreparable!
The scary thing about this is the fact they have had other fires so there is some thing wally world sells that is defective and could be in your house that is just waiting to ignite !! glad I had no trucks in a dock would have lost a trailer !!! It is surprising the walls are still standing because those tilt up buildings have no supports on those concrete sections it depends on the roof trusses to keep it standing . If the fail the wall easily just falls over .
The sprinklers did their job. The initial fire attack was great with verbalization of a 300' courtyard lay needed to the interior. The fire was noted to be under control. Then the sprinklers and fire pump were shut down. Also, the fire pumps were robbed of water when turned back on and ariel devices were flowing. The pumps were stated to be cavitating on multiple occasions. At that point, all efforts should have been made to supply the fire pump(s). The pump should not be robbed of water when ariel devices flow, but this appears to be the case. We all knew the lawsuit was coming, and now Walmart is seeking damages.
Generally in a warehouse type facility the value of the contents is worth double or triple the value of the building housing it and this looked to be a multi million $ facility so you can imagine the look on the insurance adjusters face when he shows up.
@@theone2be33 my question is where are the heavy duty industrial metal storage rack did they collapse when the roof did cuz I'm pretty sure we'd be able to see some of them still stand ing
Haven taken care of Sprinkler Systems in a building with a flammable storage area this was a pathetic sprinkler system as we had a 500 gallon alcohol fire that in contained without a problem The only time I have ever seen this much damage was from the sprinkler heads being placed below the top pallet racking
That looks like complete arson to me. What happened to the fire sprinkler system? I’ve seen it in action and it damn sure dumps a lot of water in a hurry.
The Lord knows everything He knows your battles He knows your tears He knows your pain The Lord knows it all And He’s doing something. You may feel that He’s silent But He’s out there Fighting your battles Wiping your tears Easing your pain He’s out there Giving you strength Fixing your situation Healing your heart Blessing your soul. Trust Him, He’s doing something. ✨
What are the chances of a semi trailer's overheated brakes igniting a tire fire engulfing the trailer and starting the building on fire? I'm looking at the video of where the wall collapsed. It looks like it started there and spread. I'm also wondering if a faulty li-ion (same as the battery in your cellphone) could have started it in a loaded trailer.
It was the typical modern styrofoam with rubber roof. I seen pieces of it in peoples yards from where the propane tanks on the fork lifts blew to hell early on, opening large holes in the roof.
No need for additional regulation. The insurance company conducts an investigation to determine cause of failure and denies claim based on that cause whether it is design flaw or lack of maintenance or procedural failure.
Now we can see what happens to a building full of material made of plastic's. That fire must have been furious? Imagine the caustic fumes that went into the atmosphere. How green that is?
Shout out to the fire safety training and evacuation procedures. Impressive getting 1000 people out and no one getting hurt.
Where are the shelves and equipment no forklifts BS
@@jessgarcia6352 those things can burn down till there is nothing left with the temperature this fire had most of the steel can just melt
@@melcofrans bullshit those racks and forklifts don't burn away like a Ford truck
Unbelievably good news for such a mammoth inferno.
@@jessgarcia6352 considering the roof collapsed, I'd say everything is under it.
As a firefighter, I’m very disappointed in the sprinkler system in this complex. I question the design and engineering of it, seeing how ineffective it was at containing the fire long enough for the FD to extinguish the flames before it became a conflagration. We need to revisit the engineering of sprinklers in large warehouses to ensure threatening is enough water flow and volume to keep this from happening again. The only thing that could overpower an engineered sprinkler system this way that could be legally stored in a warehouse like this would be lithium ion batteries. Once they thermally react, it’s impossible to stop them. There may be a need to be create regulations regarding those batteries, and segregating where they can be stored. This fire has lithium ion battery all over it, in my opinion.
Giant warehouses filled with cardboard boxes with cheap chinese junk, toilet paper and clothing burn down. No matter how effective a sprinkler is, it cannot be expected to completely extinguish a blaze this size. I know, let's create more useless regulations to make everything even more expensive!
@@nerdypappy but like the man said, it should’ve been enough to slow it down so the FD could get there to finish the job.
@@gregphillips1998 That is not the job of the fire suppression. It was enough to allow everyone to escape. Job Done!
@@nerdypappy The job of a fire suppression system is to contain a fire until firefighters arrive. We know how to store commodities and protect them with AS to do that economically often from lessons learned in other major fires. The paper products you reference are easy to protect. Modern challenges are the huge amount of plastics (basically gasoline in solid form) that we find in so many goods and AS design has changed to manage that. Aerosols are another challenge (proper storage is key there). Something is different in this fire. Either a change in commodities, improper storage, or malfunctioning of the AS. The investigation will tell. I hope it is made public.
I would say revisit the Firewalls too. Maybe build them up even past the roofline.
Certain DC officials were concerned the supply chain was working too well. 1000 employees and nobody saw where the fire started.
all the ware house employees were fired and robots took over. with no one around a fire started and the robots kept working and no one put out the fire :)
@@LK-pc4sq right
As a fire prevention specialist my first quest is a building with 1000 employees and no one saw the fire start. Typically, these operations are HPR highly protected risks! Were there no automatic sprinklers . The chief indicated they had to resort to tanker operations for water. Were there no fire pumps and tank? Certainly the building and goods are insured, but the source, the slow alarm and many other questions Must be answered! Right now 1000 personnel are out of work. That adds greatly to the loss!!
The employees are still going to be paid. I read that they had sprinkler systems but they were just overwhelmed by the amount of fire.
I have seen some fires that between the loss of life and jobs impacted so many.
One fireman decided he wasn't getting enough actions lit a few and one such place destroyed records dating back to 1600's for the town of Hempstead,NY 11550 area and some other records destroyed.
That fireman destroyed priceless records.
I believe he lit a commercial factory and saw the aftermath. There was a propane forklift right behind a garage door.
I believe Walmart is self-insured, so this loss $$$ comes directly out of Walmarts pocket book.
The employees are being reassigned to other places until the facility is replaced. Walmart is a huge company with lots of facilities to staff, so this will be fairly trivial. With over 750k employees in the US, finding someplace to use 1k of them is no big deal.
Walmart, like other places, are begging for workers. Where there are distribution warehouses, there are also Walmarts. They'll be relocated until the place is rebuilt.
I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out to be one of the most expensive commercial fires in American history.
Not even close. Whole cities have burned. San Francisco. Texas city? Munitions plants? Internet didn't stop working and Walmart is all cheap junk.
The worst one was 9/11.
I was there and the stench of burnt bodies is something my ptst. I am sick from being exposed to toxic smoke.
@@IndianaSmallmouth It's mostly junk imported and made in China.
I agree
There are several _much_ worse than this, as bad as it looks. Some plant manager doesn't want to spend $0.03 per employee for a recommended safety measure and a month later there's a preventable, catastrophic accident that costs lives, destroys half the plant, injures dozens in the nearby community, and costs hundreds of millions in litigation and cleanup. I refer you to the USCSB channel here on YT. They review workplace disasters based on official investigations. It's a great channel and a real eye opener for anyone working in an environment like this.
Maybe the fire suppression system was a self check out style, that's why it failed.....😄😄😄😄
The Walton family supports deregulation. I suspect that they didn't install fire suppression systems in this or other of their warehouses...
👹♨️👺🔥Burn🔥Burn🔥Bukn🔥💨😤☺
We're gonna need a deeper pond.
What a shame, but at least no one lost there life. Material things can be replaced but not human lives.
their
True.
@B Products that you would have purchased because they're cheaper than if made in North America or Europe. Products that the Chinese have already been paid for. Products covered by insurance, whose premiums will now reflect the financial cost.
yet the mega rich still exist
Ask any large company HR department, human lives are easily replaceable.
this is very suspicious, anyone know how it started,, huge loss for the whole area
This is what you get when large developers overwhelm small town councils with willy nilly expansion. Small town inspectors have no idea what they're looking at. Obviously the fire suppression system was inadequate and there's a complete lack of firewalls. Ok if the building is empty but the packaging alone in a full warehouse would make a hell of a fire. Very lucky there wasn't an extensive loss of life here as well.
The most intelligent comment I've heard!
You don't put firewalls spread through a large warehouse like that, just between the main space and the areas where people are going to dwell a while, like breakrooms, restrooms, and offices. Everywhere you see roof intact there was a firewall, and the outer walls. Also, sprinklers are not meant to completely extinguish a fire, but to suppress them long enough for people to escape, and make eventual containment easier. The sprinklers ruin everything under them, so they don't protect inventory. I would say since all 1k people got out safely, their fire suppression and containment systems worked well.
There was a firewall about halfway into the building. Its the only structure still standing internally.
I was thinking the same. Piles of crap, I mean cheap Chinese products, are stacked to the ceiling in such a large and open warehouse. Something started the fire, more stuff catches fire, the temperature increases as it spreads, and their she blows. I think it's called a flashover.
Let's not forget city/town/county officials who are begging these big box outlets and warehouses for improvements to their tax base.
Fire sale at Walmart.
153 dollars worth of merchandise just gone.
Hey guys. We hope well for all involved, and best wishes in dealing with this catastrophe...
How is this a catastrophe? No body was hurt, some huge corporation has to deal with an insurance company... who cares!
@@ethanexploring If this was your workplace it is a catastrophe.
@@ethanexploring Walmart lost millions or more and insurance probably won't make up for the profits they lost so they'll be raising the prices even more everywhere to make up for it. Money is already tight for most people, rising prices is another weight on their shoulders. Think of others every once in awhile, Scrooge.
@@ethanexploring Walmart is a self insured company.
@@ethanexploring Would you have the same comment if this was your job and your only source of income
At least Walmart now has an "excuse" why they will be raising prices. They will be making a lot more profit from this than what they lost. "Never let a good crisis go to waste." --- Sir Winston Churchill
Don't worry the owners are calling the insurance company. But the people who are going to suffer are all of the employees. God bless you all and keep the faith.
How will they suffer? Walmart has already stated that employees of this facility will be paid for 40 hours plus overtime. Walmart will also attempt to place the displaced employees in other warehouses and/or stores.
Walmart probably insures itself ..
Walmart will place them else we're for the time being
Most likely a fema centre
Walmart will take care of its people...
Things that make you say, "Oh Really . . . ?" The Fire Marshalls report is going to be a very interesting read.
If he isn't paid off and a complete lie. Corporate greed isn't going to admit any fault and I'm sure will do ANYTHING to suppress the truth!
For an enormous warehouse, fire suppression should be designed in. This kind of fire shouldn't be possible.
As has been previously mentioned above the warehouse was very likely designed to NFPA or FM Global fire protection standards; standards developed from experience over many decades. Providing the occupancy was protected by sprinkler systems designed for the occupancy this loss should not have occurred. ESFR systems are designed to suppress a fire while control mode systems are designed to control a fire until the public fire department arrives to extinguish the fire. IMO the only way this fire got out of control was if the site's water supply was compromised e.g., if the systems required a fire pump the fire pump was inoperative or became inoperative, a water control valve was closed, foreign material in the sprinkler piping, etc. As mentioned above, it is surprising not to see an MFL (Maximum Foreseeable Loss) 4-hour firewall on the site for the values that were no doubt present. Insurer's frequently call for an MFL wall to limit the extent of a fire loss.
The 1000 employees were evacuated ahead of time. It was intentional. Just like all the other warehouses. I can't speculate which party. So much is happening to buildings. One party is getting rid of or one party is taking out what's going on.
Wow!! This is a huge loss!! I sure hope everyone got out safely!! Times just got harder for these folks!
All 1,000 employees got out just fine. I believe there was some minor injuries to some firefighters
If you think this is a huge loss you have absolutely no idea how much money they actually have.
Lithium and magnesium; two most active metals, and there may be others metals too,but these metals can be handled easily at room temperature. But get them hot enough to ignite and all bets are off.
I was at school when this happened. Some kids were saying "Walmart must be having some fire sales today." And some kids were confused until one looked out the window and there was a fire in the distance. When we ended up getting home sure enough, on the tv there was a fire on the exact same building. Pretty glad nobody got hurt.
Just looking at the drone footage that building would not have pass a CofO without having separations and auto closing overhead doors to help prevent the spread of fire.
There was, something clearly went very wrong. There was a tilt-up firewall dividing it in half. I've been in a lot of these and they typically even have a deluge/water curtain at the firewall.
You are wrong. Every modern warehouse is built this way. No fire walls.
@@mikedacey5944 4:19 That looks a lot like a firewall to me.
@@mikedacey5944 you are wrong, if you watched the fire chiefs interview you would know that there were indeed fire walls, as they are required in building code for buildings like this. But by the time the fire reached them it had too much heat and power behind it.
They probably didn't turn conveyors off fire doors probably didn't close did sprinklers have on site water tanks and pond resavoirs . Probably several problems in a chain of events fire is evil and fast. After the investigation ????? .K mart early eighties. Morrisville Pa lost a warehouse. Rebuilt twice as big we took FIRE very serious after that
Well I believe after looking at the footage on the drone that that fire would not got out of control if it had sprinkling systems in it which I believe is one of the state of Indiana's building codes.
It did, something clearly went wrong or they were overwhelmed. It's not unheard of. Same thing happened to a tilt-up fully sprinkled warehouse in Bartlett, IL last month.
the fire chief of plainfield has said the the sprinkler system was properly working when they got there, my feeling is that something was stored where it wasnt supposed to be, and it overwhelmed the sprinker system.
Not about codes.
@@und3adxl3g3nd3 Apparently, based on the recorded dispatch calls, the fire department shut off the fire pumps for the sprinkler systems before the fire was100% under control. Then opened up the warehouse. The onslaught of fresh air caused the fire to get out of control very quickly and since the fire pumps were shut off and take time to get back into service, there was no help from the sprinkler system after that.
One of them Swift drivers parked to close to the building and caught it on fire.
Now you see how important the door greeter is - no matches, burning grills, gas torches etc allowed in the paint section
I live near Passaic, NJ and several months ago there was a fire in a warehouse adjacent to one with chlorine and other pool chemicals stored. The firefighters had to be very careful not to expose themselves to deadly chemical fumes. Perhaps part of the problem here was due to such risks. Also the truss roof construction made it too dangerous for firefighters to go inside due to fear of structural collapse of roof structures that did happen.
Remember when marcal paper was on fire?
@@spudman12382 Yes, it happened a few years ago, one of the biggest fires in years in the area. I went by it a few days after the fire. What a mess. They were able to restart some operations from the remains of the plant. The owners plan to replace the plant on the site of the old one. It is/was a major user of recycled papers.
@@leonb2637 yeah I use to drive by there all time. Even picked up a few loads from there. It was weird not seeing the building anymore
Damn, there go my Oreos. Seriously thankful no one got hurt .
"Washed in the Blood, I'll Fly Away".....
Well, that district manager job just got a lot harder to fill.
Someone said it will take a long time to rebuild.... Not Really, the cleanup will take longer than the rebuild.
Yeah, it's tilt-up, they can literally throw one of these up in about 6 months. This should be even quicker since all of the infrastructure is already in place and may even be able to reuse the footings.
praying for everyone there sorry you all have to go thru this
I wonder who the insurance carriers are and whether or not they had recent inspections and if they had any issues to resolve. Except for a small area, did the fire stay within the walls of the structure? It looks controlled.
There's nothing left. Once the fire got going in such a building, the heat and embers just burned everything, including those trucks parked outside.
Politicians don't care. Money is more important. Insurance just made a few folks millionaires and it will be rebuilt. Happened in NJ few years back. Walls collapsed etc. Whatever. Cost goes to taxpayers and shoppers.
This is what is referred to as a " clean sweep".... It's both tragic and impressive....
My first thought was why didn't they move the trailers away? But the docks likely have modern locks that prevent them from pulling away without someone inside and power to release them.
Those warehouse managers are going to be so lost without their office chairs
Looks like the fire got ahead of the sprinkler system. Whether that was a design related issue or an operational problem by the firefighters remains to be seen.
Modern early suppression sprinklers can provide a lot of water, for a fairly short time, in a focused location. Usually that works, but if it doesn't, the sprinklers have shot their wad if they don't have a massive firewater supply connected.
Failed early suppression, multiple ignition points, rapid spread, and/or the firefighters shutting the sprinklers down too soon and allowing reignition are all possibilities to be investigated.
Also, the massive roof system damage whit relatively minimal wreckage points to a very high fuel load of rapid burning material under the main portion of the roof - possibly lots of paper goods and plastics.
The sprinkler system did function to the degree that all workers were able to evacuate safely.
And thus it worked as intended.
Well damn, thats why you don't keep all your eggs in one basket.
Do you think that is the only dist. center Walmart had? Your comment makes no sense.
@@lowroller2958 i know that, but thats a big basket and I like you now. Now I subscribe to you okay friend
Hope everyone is safe, & nobody got hurt here
I bet there will be some interesting developments come out about this. We are living in a time where many truths are being revealed. Stay tuned!
Yeah it's OK Amazon have got this
I agree. Looks like someone got rid of evidence that would have revealed what Wal-Mart is reaaly selling. Wal-Mart is evil
Smart
"Many Truths" ?
@@mwest0894 ooooooh
I question the suppression system of this building, its incredible no one was injured or killed. There need to be more than about parge structures like this, something wrong happened here.
Imagine the insurance clam on that building with everything in it ! Wow
What drone are you using to film this with?
Glad everyone made it out.. But Also what is the Effects going to be in the Enire Country from this fire?
I hope the new building has a better fire suppression system!
If you don't know the cause...then your comment is premature.
@@RLTtizME he still has a right to say what he wants. FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
@@Endor2001 I didn't say he couldn't say what he wanted....my assessment constitutes my FREEDOM OF SPEECH. So there.
@@RLTtizME you are a copy cat piece of shit. You couldn't even come back with anything original, you took my line. Wow, you are pathetic.
This building met or exceeded code when it was completed in 2016 and that's still basically the same code today. I've been in a lot of these. They do everything right with the fire but every now and then this sort of thing can happen. That's why it's called fire "suppression" and not "extinguishment". Everybody got out, it did its job.
Robs post is spot on. The engineering of the sprinkler system is where to look first. Second was wallmart storing products that they should not have. Third what was the city's water pressure. Four are all valves turned the way they should been. Five did wallmart want it to burn.
That's a 100 million dollar plus CLAME. Where were the fire hoses at inside the WEAR house.
If any. Buildings that large should have reels of 2" hose inside. It's easy to see the sprinklers failed. But everyone did get out alive. Now they have to follow the money trail. What firms didn't want to buy back there goods.
claim
“Walmart”, “claim”, “their”, “warehouse”.
Totally gone. Saw that as I passed through Indy . Could see the smoke from Mount Confort . 🤔
Thanks So Much
Just another fishy disaster among so many!
Either the sprinkler system was shut down or not working which in the year 2022 seems imposterus and the proximity of the fire stations something or someone knows something. A million Square foot building don't go up like that without some help.
It happens fairly regularly. Sprinklers are designed to buy time to allow occupants to escape. They cannot be economically fit to suppress all fires. It just happened last month in Bartlett, IL to a similar warehouse storing documents and has happened to other Walmart and Amazon DCs.
@@craigjensen6853 I don't see how that fire got that far with a fire sprinkler system and the on hand extinguishers in the building without being suppressed being that is a million square feet under roof. Either there were accelerants or someone waited way too long. The fire stations are not that far away from that building. Maybe a lack of judgment. Most buildings with that many employees have an escape procedure along with a safety supervisor .With a thousand employees it makes it hard for a fire to start and nobody notice.But with everything Walmart these days and the lack of leadership and management and the way stores are run now it doesn't surprise me.
This warehouse was only like 2-3 years old…
One of them trucks is probably 100k+ in goods. So I can't imagine how much was lost in the store
Warehouse
Insurance
@@RLTtizME it's a warehouse... Really I had no idea from the news nor the yt video
@@zaneece yeah. But that's not the point that's like enough to feed entire towns and literally
@Jay RM Yes. It will be an accounting and legal challenge.
Not much left for a fire sale, glad everyone's okay.
Plenty of scrap though
If the fire suppression systems were working the fire shouldn't have gotten out of control that fast.can you say major osha investigation.
This is amazing! 👏
That is a massive warehouse! Usually there is firewalls between sections of the building. I don't see but one firewall. A building that size should have more than one firewall. I've been in warehousing for 25 years now. Never seen a warehouse built in that floor plain. Warehouses have a massive sprinkler systems as well. It just seems odd that all the safety measures didn't work to minimize the fire. Makes you wonder if the building was even up to code. Our building go's through inspection quite often. I'm sure there's going to be a very large investigation from every level; building code, inspections, Plainfield and it's political duty on enforcement of code, and on and on. There is 56 thousand jobs in Plainfield and I'm sure other companies are going to be courageous to know. Safety is a big deal in warehousing and Safety comes before production. Was this facility overlooking Safety measures to meet production do to the covid crisis on the market. Thank God no one was injured. But this should be a big awakening for companies and logistics and warehousing.
Not about code, but you're on the right track.
Open warehouses are kind of the norm in the logistics business. What kinds of warehouses do you work in? This seems like some kind of arson.
I work in a 1.2 million square foot warehouse and we have no fire walls. Fully monitored and sprinklered. So I'm guessing you're a little out of date. Most large distribution centers today do not use firewalls.
@@jamescostello6529
I must be getting to old, lol. My plant isn't that big. I still drive a old model Raymond lift truck. I work at a smaller FedEx logistics warehouse. All the facilities I have worked at had fire walls and doors for tall lifts.
@@tvviewer4500
I've been working at FedEx for about 8 years now. Before that I worked at Belkin and Woods industries. All those facilities had fire walls and special doors for tall lifts. I drove a turret fork truck.
Highly suspicious beyond belief, incredible .
Not really, buildings burn all the time and theres so many things in this one that could easily cause a fire
Very suspicious indeed. Another supply chain link gone
@@NewMexicoCountrySongs are you an arson investigator or a Fire Marshall if not then shut up you have no right to comment when you don't know what are are talking about
@@robertyoung3992 ever hear of freedom of speech? Or maybe youre a snowflake
@@NewMexicoCountrySongs poor fire suppression, if even working?
Do building codes need to be updated for these massive complexes.? I imagine the code was written long before anybody built something like this.
Codes are continuously updated. I question what started the fire. Was it lithium ion battery failure?
I was driving through plainfield and I almost cried seeing that pillar of black smoke because I thought the worst, thank God no one was hurt!
These mega warehouses that catch fire are a flash fire storm difficult to contain with all the flammable materials inside.
CNN is blaming Trump already
Only you mentioned trump lol
I guess we know who lives in your head lol !!!!!
@@Mr12JETS No. Someone else mentioned him also.
So what happened too the sprinkler system…why did it not work
Where was the warehouse sprinkler system? Why did no one fight the fire with the wall mounted fire hose systems put there to control initial outbreaks? Smells like a corporate fire.
Follow the money
Well they damn well better find my pair of boots and my lawn mower battery that I had to order that was supposed to be delivered yesterday but still nothing today has arrived at my front door........
I've got some bad news for you pal
@@bogmosisjones9382 LMAO !!!
I think their in the shipping department as we speak.
iam so amaze nobody got hurt or lost their life with over 1000 employees plus truck drivers and yard employees got hurt cause i been at this warehouse picking up preloaded trailer and i have to tell you this is one busy warehouse as much as some people like or dislike walmart they did a hell of job getting everyone out safe i heard of smaller fires and in the past and some of lost lives and got hurt but 1000 employees and not one person was hurt
Karma for the way I heard they treat their employees
Take one look at the roofing material and you can understand why this fire was so aggressive and hard to put out.
Corrugated steel doesn't burn.
@@MichaelClark-uw7ex How does one insulate a steel roof to keep rain out, and use AC to keep it cool, and heat to keep it warm?
@@ducewags I don't know , ask them
I was an electrician for 45 years and I've seen dozens of factories and warehouses exactly like that.
Some have fiberglass insulation, but fiberglass is not flammable either.
So I have no clue what you are trying to say.
Now if it had been a hot tar and felt roof that would be different but looking at the unburnt parts, there was no tar and felt.
@@MichaelClark-uw7ex Walmart uses styrofoam over the steel roofing for insulating and sealing all of it's buildings. And as we all know, that stuff burns hot and black just like we see in the clips of the fire.
@@ducewags There is no styrofoam on that roof, look at the unburned parts, it is just corrugated steel, thats why its still there.
In view of the rapid spread of that fire that building was constructed to minimal if any County or State Fire Codes!
I find it hard to believe that building had fire sprinklers, or Standby' Fire hoses.
Fire Sprinklers are typical in California State area truck/trailer loading docks.
In short.....the building wasn't constructed to typical large population counties standards.
(But Hey! That's how we were able to keep the prices low at checkout!)
Lol you work for Trader Joe’s??
Extremely suspicious 🤨
These facilties are equiped with sprinkler systems. How did this happen?
Justin on just truckin filmed it with his drone when it first started rolling.
I watch his channel 👍🏼
this is going to hurt my Walmart stock. glad all got out alive as that is the important part.
Screw your walmart stock, and you too.
I'm sure Bentonville has video of the entire thing. Should be very helpful to the investigators.
Controlled burn.
how does a warehouse burn when walmart has the state of the art fire systems installed? how does that happen?
China made goods.. Maybe there way of Sanctions..🤦♂️
I was waiting for a day like this . All that carbord and no firehouse cabinet at all locations for sprinkler system is USELESS . That is not the only warehouse that is like this .. 🚑🚑🚑🚑
Glad that no lives were lost… thank goodness… especially over the burning of cheap, plastic junk imported by Walmart from places like China…
What was in the warehouse?
@@TheSaskachewan1 anything u can possibly think of
The same thing can happen at a Amazon fulfillment center , the only thing is twice the size and three stores inside . I never seen a fire hose cabinet and the springler system's are mounted so high almost 60 to 70 feet from the ground and the shelving acting like a roof keeping the water from getting to the fire !!!!! WOw 🚑🚑🚂🚂🚂
@@TheSaskachewan1 cheap plastic Chinese junk….
What a sight! I don’t think anything can be rebuilt. It will all have to be demolished. Those trailers that caught the blaze will have to be scrapped. Everything is irreparable!
Be nice to know what state this is in without having to search it..
The scary thing about this is the fact they have had other fires so there is some thing wally world sells that is defective and could be in your house that is just waiting to ignite !! glad I had no trucks in a dock would have lost a trailer !!! It is surprising the walls are still standing because those tilt up buildings have no supports on those concrete sections it depends on the roof trusses to keep it standing . If the fail the wall easily just falls over .
Having previously worked for Wallyword, I can definitely say they sell extremely flammable substances.
@@nicoleabrahamson1883 Im thinking that its some lithium battery device that the battery is leaking getting air into it and igniting .
@@jhonsiders6077 could very well be.
That baby was a hot cooking fire great job to all the personal that stood side by side fighting it
The sprinklers did their job. The initial fire attack was great with verbalization of a 300' courtyard lay needed to the interior. The fire was noted to be under control. Then the sprinklers and fire pump were shut down. Also, the fire pumps were robbed of water when turned back on and ariel devices were flowing. The pumps were stated to be cavitating on multiple occasions. At that point, all efforts should have been made to supply the fire pump(s). The pump should not be robbed of water when ariel devices flow, but this appears to be the case. We all knew the lawsuit was coming, and now Walmart is seeking damages.
Generally in a warehouse type facility the value of the contents is worth double or triple the value of the building housing it and this looked to be a multi million $ facility so you can imagine the look on the insurance adjusters face when he shows up.
I am pretty sure he won't even have to show up to declare it a total loss. But they will wait for the investigations to finish before they pay
I'm pretty sure Walmart is self insured
Yeah, I'm sure they are as big as they are.
I wonder if there's any products that are still in decent shape?
Lol dumb
Yeah. The fire extinguishers
@@theone2be33 my question is where are the heavy duty industrial metal storage rack did they collapse when the roof did cuz I'm pretty sure we'd be able to see some of them still stand ing
@@danahamelinproductions9224 melted them
Not sure, but I'm thinking total loss.
Duh duh
Haven taken care of Sprinkler Systems in a building with a flammable storage area this was a pathetic sprinkler system as we had a 500 gallon alcohol fire that in contained without a problem
The only time I have ever seen this much damage was from the sprinkler heads being placed below the top pallet racking
“Having”, and sprinkler systems is never capitalized.
Why did you not show the other side of the building? Lots of forward and backwards.
Fire so hot it burned thru steel and aluminum factory set up and automation. Belt and pulley system just charred to dust. Come on.
That's what I was thinking. The steel support columns are bent. The fire strangely too hot.
Dew not go there...
That looks like complete arson to me. What happened to the fire sprinkler system? I’ve seen it in action and it damn sure dumps a lot of water in a hurry.
That's exactly what I was thinking. I wonder if they were trying write off anything in particular, besides the actual building of course.
Arson or sabotage. Is this warehouse union or nonunion ?
@@joyceleadbetter2600 shouldn’t make a difference.
Walmart to cheep to install sprinkler system?
THIS is why we cannot find Pork Ramen noodles.......
Amazing everyone got out safe. Praise God!
The Lord knows everything
He knows your battles
He knows your tears
He knows your pain
The Lord knows it all
And He’s doing something.
You may feel that He’s silent
But He’s out there
Fighting your battles
Wiping your tears
Easing your pain
He’s out there
Giving you strength
Fixing your situation
Healing your heart
Blessing your soul.
Trust Him, He’s doing something.
✨
Well he needs to get off his butt and fix this world then.
So very strange for a fire to break out that can not be supressed by sprinklers and local equipment. To just keep going.
What are the chances of a semi trailer's overheated brakes igniting a tire fire engulfing the trailer and starting the building on fire? I'm looking at the video of where the wall collapsed. It looks like it started there and spread. I'm also wondering if a faulty li-ion (same as the battery in your cellphone) could have started it in a loaded trailer.
zero on the first
What kind of roof was it?
If it was a rubber backed styrofoam
With tar and stone coating.
That would spread pretty fast.
It was the typical modern styrofoam with rubber roof. I seen pieces of it in peoples yards from where the propane tanks on the fork lifts blew to hell early on, opening large holes in the roof.
It was the Democrats😬!!!!!! WLM……🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸👍
No need for additional regulation. The insurance company conducts an investigation to determine cause of failure and denies claim based on that cause whether it is design flaw or lack of maintenance or procedural failure.
At 7:40 note the line of Walmart trailers untouched, while to the left lots of contractor trailers and a few walmarts all burnt.
Most likely because the doors were open on the ones that burned.
Now we can see what happens to a building full of material made of plastic's. That fire must have been furious? Imagine the caustic fumes that went into the atmosphere. How green that is?
Green is dumb. Climate change is a farce.