WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Firefighters got a first look inside the burned-down Winston Weaver plant on Thursday. It's the first time they've been able to go back inside the building since the fire started Monday night.
Winston-Salem Fire Department tweeted helmet camera video of the smoke and rubble inside the charred fertilizer plant.
Winston-Salem Fire Chief Trey Mayo said about a dozen firefighters were able to go on-site around noon and they've been rotating shifts.
Mayo said the threat of explosion has greatly diminished, according to an ammonium nitrate expert. However, the evacuation radius has been reduced to 660ft.
"We just started the heavy equipment operating at about noon and we want to do some more air sampling before we pull back that evacuation radius," Mayo said.
There were 600 tons of fertilizer-making chemicals inside the plant -- nearly three times the amount that a West, Texas fertilizer plant had when it exploded in 2013, killing 15 and injuring dozens more.
No one has been injured in the Winston Weaver fire.
A 12-person task force made up of several agencies, including the SBI and ATF, is investigating the fire. They know a Weaver employee made a 911 call about the fire from the plant around the time it happened. That employee was not harmed.
A cause is still being investigated.