WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Winston-Salem officials reported new details Tuesday in response to the Winston Weaver Fertilizer fire that evacuated thousands from their homes earlier this year.
Fire Chief Trey Mayo said the official cause of the fire will be listed as undetermined because too much evidence was lost in the blaze.
"It is difficult to conduct an investigation at a fire and make any kind of determination when the fire burns for a week as this one did," Mayo said.
The city has been able to determine what worked and what didn't in the response to the fire. Mayo and others presented a report to the city's Public Works Committee.
Crisis and risk management firm Envirosafe conducted an assessment that found the city's handling of the fire went well overall. President and CEO Kevil Dull recommended some changes to improve communication.
"You had a major incident on your hands," Dull said. "There was potential that it could be much, much worse. What these agencies did is that they prepared for that."
Mayo explained why the city did not declare a state of emergency or require evacuation in the days after the fire started.
Hundreds of people who lived within a mile of the plant were asked to leave their homes because of the possibility that the 600 tons of ammonium nitrate at the plant could cause an explosion. The evacuation remained voluntary.
Mayo said at the time, he felt a mandatory evacuation wouldn't have changed the response and might have sent the wrong message.
"That is not what I wanted to communicate to our citizens, is that if you have a problem we're not going back to get you," Mayo said. "We never did that. We never stopped answering calls within that one-mile radius."
Some believe a state of emergency was needed,
Committee member and Mayor Pro Tem D.D. Adams, who represents the part of town near the plant, told Mayo she thinks the city council should be part of those decisions in the future.
"I still to this day am asked when I'm in a grocery store anywhere why I didn't declare a state of emergency, I tell them I didn't have the option and I didn't have the power," Adams said.
Committee members thanked Mayo and other first responders for their efforts. The committee's main goal was to talk about what they can work on so that future response will be smoother.