WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The Winston Weaver Fertilizer plant was built in 1939. Ever since the fire broke out, there have been questions of whether the fire and chemical storage codes were outdated.
The Winston-Salem Fire Department inspected the plant in December and it passed, but it's inspected under the code it was built under and that's 80+ years old.
2 Wants To Know asked a member of the North Carolina Building Code Council about that and if the codes are as outdated as they sound.
“The buildings that store or use hazardous materials typically fall under our current codes, so even if you have buildings built in the 30's you have processes that have changed codes, it supports some of those processes,” said Jason Shepherd, NC Building Code Council member, Fire Service.
Shepherd says codes are updated and changed over the course of time and while every business isn't required to adhere to every single code change, that doesn't mean there aren't some updates along the way.
He points to the Hamlet Chicken plant fire in 1991. He says the Fire Marshals’ office created a new directive to start inspecting commercial buildings. He calls it a turning point.
Shepherd says depending on what is found at Weaver, codes could change and that would go through the council.
“The changes that occur happen due to situation, it may very well be that depending on a fire investigation if it determines if there is x quantity of said material, it could lead to a code proposal to reduce it or increase it,” said Shepherd.
He added anyone can request or ask the council to look at a code to see if it needs to be changed.
As for why not all buildings are required to have all the same codes he said, “You don't take a code in 2022 that is very comprehensive and has 100 years of input and it's not fair to impose on existing buildings that same code, that's the ideology behind that.”