Winston-Salem plant fire demonstrates environmental injustice

Ruby Gordon was already in bed when she received her first call last Monday night advising her to evacuate her Winston-Salem house.

The call was about a fire at Winston Weaver’s fertilizer plant on Cherry Street, which is approximately three-quarters mile away.

Gordon had driven past the building thousands of time. She would sometimes see a truck going or coming, but she said that she was not able to identify the truck. To be honest, I didn’t know what was inside that building. It was there, I just didn’t know what it contained.

When the fire broke out on Jan. 31, more than 500 tons ammonium nitrate was in Winston Weaver’s plant. An additional 100 tons were found on a railroad car.

Common fertilizer ingredients include canExplodeIt can cause damage to wood, paper, and other compounds. Multiple deadly explosions have been linked to it in the United States. One example is the West Texas explosion of 2013, which killed 15 people and left more than 250 others injured. Two tons of ammonium Nitrate were loaded into a car and it exploded in Oklahoma City1995: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was razed to the ground and 169 people were killed.

Gov. Roy Coopers executive order

Gov. Roy Cooper addressed environmental justice last month in an executive order. It was geared towards Gordons neighborhoods.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Screening Tool, 51% of the approximately 6,500 people living within a mile from Winston Weaver are Black and 26% Hispanic. The area’s per capita income is $17,423, which is less than Forsyth County’s $30,769.

Cooper’s Executive Order 246 required meaningful, fair, and equitable public engagement in order to avoid and remediate harmful impacts on communities most adversely and frequently affected by economic and environmental health. It also discusses cumulative impacts, which refers to the idea of multiple pollution sources stacked on top of each another to create greater hazards.

According to the EPAs screening tool, Winston Weaver is within the 91st percentile national for air quality exposure. Winston Weaver is also in the 93rd per centile for air quality exposure. Winston Weaver is located within a mile.

The community is bordered east by U.S. 52. This highway was built in 1972. Through the city’s Black neighbourhoodsIn the 1960s, under the pretense of eliminating what city leaders called blight.

In 1961, R.J. Reynolds opened the Whitaker Park plant one mile southeast of Winston Weaver. The facility, which closed in 2011, was the world’s largest cigarette plant when it opened.

A small asphalt plant is located southeast of Winston Weaver, as well as a packaging plant.

Nearby the plant are small businesses that repair cars, a staffing agency, and the corporate headquarters of an independent wrestling organization. There are also residential neighborhoods along Indiana Avenue and Cherry Street that connect to the plant. These neighborhoods are usually made up of modest homes with large lots. This area is often overlooked because it was once considered outlying the country.

Many of the thousands who lived within a mile from the plant didn’t know Winston Weaver was there.

A blast, with heavy smoke

D.D. Adams lives approximately three-quarters mile away from the plant. Adams was sitting on a couch in her Marlowe Avenue house when she felt the first blast. Adams reported feeling two smaller explosions rattle her home about an hour later.

Adams, who has been representing Winston-Salem’s north ward since 2009 on the city council, stated: Most people dont know. Not just in my neighborhood, but across all neighborhoods. We like to think of things as a matrix. As long as I don’t know the answer and someone else is, I’m good.

She said that incidents like these open people’s eyes to the fact that they don’t know as much as they should.

Chenita Johnson resides on Patterson Avenue, two blocks away from the evacuation area that spanned for a mile around the plant from Monday night to Friday morning. Johnson has lived in this area for 40 years and, like Gordon, she had no idea of the amount ammonium nitrate that was being used at the plant.

Johnson stated that many people living near ground zero didn’t understand the factory and that there were many people who saw it, but they didn’t know what to do with it.

Johnson posted a video Thursday afternoon showing the smoke coming from her home. Johnson was unable to place what Johnson thought the clouds smelt like, so she fled inside and kept all windows and doors closed.

Johnson stated that Patterson didn’t feel safe when it fell. We had to cover up in the house.

Plant Winston Weaver

The Winston Weaver plant didn’t explode like the West, Texas facility.

Instead, firefighters retreated and let the unpredictable substance burn, while monitoring the site with drones that flew overhead. They believe that most of ammonium nitrate has been extinguished, or at the very least enough to allow crews in hazmat suits to inspect the site, shifting rubble, and checking for hot spots.

According to Forsyth County records, the Winston Weaver facility consisted of five buildings spread across more than eight acre. The warehouse measuring nearly 48,000 square feet was located at the property’s western edge. It was built in 1939 and remodeled in 1963. There were also two smaller warehouses, and an office building. Each was built later.

Joe Jackson, whose parents purchased their Winston-Salem house in the early 1970s said that the plant kept a low profile. Jackson recalls looking out the window as he drove past the facility to see a small sign in blue. But, Jackson and his parents were not informed of what was happening inside.

Jackson stated that Jackson did not give any indications or understand that anyone knew of a location that contained ammonium nitrate, or any other chemical that could cause the disruption.

During A Thursday briefingOfficials at Winston-Salem Fire Department stated that there have been minor incidents at this site in recent years. These include a few fires in electric equipment and possibly a fire in a car in the lot.

According to Forsyth County property records, the buildings were not equipped with sprinkler systems or were not insulated.

It was located outside the city limits when Winston Weavers’ first building was built in 1939.

Adams, the city councilwoman, stated: I knew friends who lived that way. It was farmland with chickens, hogs and country. The plant was there, the neighborhood grew around it, and it was annexed to the new city. This is no different to any other city in America.

Like many cities in America, especially the South, the majority of those who bought homes in the area around the fertilizer plant were Black.

Adams said that Black people were forced into moving to any place that produced chemicals: factories, hazardous material and loud noise businesses, dry cleaners, automotive, and other manufacturing facilities.

What’s next for Winston-Salem?

Between 1912 and 1940, segregation laws Concentrated Winston-Salems Black PopulationEast Winston-Salem along what would be the U.S. 52 corridor. Russell Smith, a geography professorAt Winston-Salem State University. Smith said that even after these laws were repealed they still shaped the places where Black people could live or choose to live.

TBecause they are the only place in the city where they can live comfortably, feel safe, and be around people like them, they are forced to use these spaces. Smith added that the second is the economic aspect of where they can afford to live.

This is one of the many places you can find them. Black people could afford to liveAfter U.S. 52 had displaced Black neighborhoods like Happy Hill, Belews Street and Belews Street it was around the Winston Weaver facility.

Smith stated that policymakers need to weigh the benefits of industrial facilities such as Winston Weaver in terms of tax revenue and the environmental impacts of having them in a community.

Smith stated that people living in close proximity to thousands of people, and when something goes wrong, are the ones who bear the brunt of all the benefits that society has enjoyed over the years.

Cooper signed Executive Order 246, which Cooper signed in January. It acknowledges that climate changes have adisproportionate effect in communities where people are of color or people with low incomes. It recognizes the cumulative effects and the importance state government has in addressing environmental disparities.

The order calls to a public input process, which could lead directly to additional executive orders that address environmental justice. Perhaps the most important aspect of the order is that it calls for the appointment, in each Cabinet agency, of an environmental justice person and public participation plans to guide how those agencies interacts with communities that could be affected.

Jackson, who is caring to his 91-year old mother, was alerted Monday evening by a relative asking if they were evacuated. Jackson turned on the TV to see more information about the situation through the news media.

He ultimately decided to remain in the home, even though it was slightly outside the evacuation zone. He felt it was better to take the chance that it would not explode than to risk taking his mother to shelter in the midst COVID-19.

Jackson and many others are left with a long list of unanswered question after the smoke clears.

Jackson stated that Jackson could not explain any of the whys. It was there. It is amazing that this plant could be found with such a large amount of ammonium-nitrate, but there was no way to share this information with the community. If something goes wrong, what to do?

Ruby Gordon and Harold Gordon, her husband, have lived in the Retnuh Street residence since 1975. It’s easy to see the valley from the front porch of their ranch with three bedrooms.

The Gordons were already asleep when the first call came Monday night, suggesting they evacuate. The phone rang again a few minutes later. It said that an evacuation was ordered. The Gordons decided to remain.

Gordon recalled that I said, Well, I just want to trust the Lords to take care me tonight and Ill deal tomorrow. I then looked out and saw that all the neighbors were still present, so I said, Okay, we are all going to do it together.

On Thursday afternoon, Gordon was looking after Gracelyn, her 4-year-old granddaughter. Gracelyn was watching cartoons inside as Gordon stood outside and said that the Winston Weaver plant shouldn’t be allowed to rebuild at its former location.

It should be located in a location where it will catch fire or whatever, Gordon said. … It is not necessary to build it back around here or in the vicinity.

Johnson, who smelled smoke from her porch believed that the Winston Weaver plant would be relocated if Winston-Salem had been populated with white or wealthy residents in the past 80 years.

She stated that Winston Weaver would have kept a much smaller amount of ammonium-nitrate if it was in another part of the city.

Johnson stated that Johnson didn’t believe people knew how dangerous this was. I don’t know how this was allowed, and I don’t even think so.

This story was made possible by 1Earth Fund in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O retains full editorial control over the work.