Massive fire at Walmart e-commerce center

[Pat in Speedway]

Fire has hit a Walmart e-commerce center in Plainfield, Indiana. To say it’s massive is an understatement. Pic from my driveway a few hours ago from 10 miles away during an otherwise sunny day. The smoke was picked up on radar for at least 20 miles! Fortunately everyone accounted for.

 

[simple_gifts]

That sucks. All I can see coming out of this are 57 threads wondering why there is no Supertech.

Glad everyone is ok Evacuation was hindered by greeters checking the fleeing employee's bags.

 

[tyman]

daaaaaaaaang

 

[Dave Hess]

Yikes. I wonder if fire was intentionally set…. ?

Lucky everyone got out.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

Close to Indianapolis (West side.)

Glad everyone seems out of that towering inferno (smoke looks really bad. Like WTC smoke) and I wonder how that started.

My first guess is someone smoking in a bathroom, although how that got the point of igniting a fire.. hmm.

Last time I saw lingering thick black smoke like that, the towers went down.
The image referenced

 

[doitmyself]

Dang, that is massive.

 

[BHopkins]

Wow! It makes me curious if there were failures in the fire suppression system. I'm wondering how the fire could be that big if everything worked the way it should.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Yeah that's definitely SuperTech on fire. Looks much worse than a "normal" warehouse fire IMHO.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

Wow! It makes me curious if there were failures in the fire suppression system. I'm wondering how the fire could be that big if everything worked the way it should.

My first thought as well.. warehouses are generally clean with anti-fire stuff everywhere.

Again, not to be morbid, but that looks like the smoke just before.. collapse. Complete with HUGE smoke signature that blackens the sky and stays there.

 

[Pat in Speedway]

Wow! It makes me curious if there were failures in the fire suppression system. I'm wondering how the fire could be that big if everything worked the way it should.

Our fire department from here in the Town of Speedway was called in to assist. They posted a little while ago they’re battling low water pressure.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

Dang, that is massive.
View attachment 92944

Google WTC pics, of how smoke looked over NYC, that's.. pretty bad.

They look similar.

 

[BHopkins]

Close to Indianapolis (West side.)

Glad everyone seems out of that towering inferno (smoke looks really bad. Like WTC smoke) and I wonder how that started.

My first guess is someone smoking in a bathroom, although how that got the point of igniting a fire.. hmm.

Last time I saw lingering thick black smoke like that, the towers went down.
The image referencedView attachment 92945

Several scenarios come to mind in a large warehousing operation. An electrical failure in a forklift charging station. An overheated forklift battery exploded. Some sort of spill in a hazardous/flammable material area, that got ignited by a spark. Maintenance work involving welding/grinding.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

Several scenarios come to mind in a large warehousing operation. An electrical failure in a forklift charging station. An overheated forklift battery exploded. Some sort of spill in a hazardous/flammable material area, that got ignited by a spark. Maintenance work involving welding/grinding.

Exploding forklift battery, maybe. Management is usually reluctant to replace a battery that needs water, or is failing. They cite cost.. They do get darn hot. The charging stations have emergency cut-offs but they may be manual.

For it to get that large, that fast..

 

[MNgopher]

As usual, lots of speculation and no actual verified information.

When the dust/smoke settles, the story will come out.

 

[PimTac]

Something happened for it to get that big, that fast. I wonder if this distribution center had a lot of tires stored? That would account for the black smoke plus any flammables like oil, etc.

Definitely looks like a class Bravo fire. Maybe the sprinklers exacerbated the situation?

 

[incognito_2u]

Now that’s a fire……..with that amount of black smoke, it’s probably being fueled by burning tires or other petroleum product……..and Yes, eerily similiar to the Trades!
(^) As I typed…

 

[PF52]

Have any planes gone missing from IND?

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

Now that’s a fire……..with that amount of black smoke, it’s probably being fueled by burning tires or other petroleum product……..and Yes, eerily similiar to the Trades!
(^) As I typed…

Now that’s a fire……..with that amount of black smoke, it’s probably being fueled by burning tires or other petroleum product……..and Yes, eerily similiar to the Trades!
(^) As I typed…

I think posting a pic of NYC skyline with the black smoke somehow would be inappropriate.

But, yeesh, if they don't look.. remarkably similar.

HUGE smoke, yes, you're probably correct on what is burning, I will be thinking about this at work tonight. Not sure if there will be a safety meeting but.

As long as that building there is fully evacuated .

 

[CharlesInCharge]

Like that Navy ship that just burned, this is odd. All the fire suppression systems you'd think this is not possible but here we are.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Now that’s a fire……..with that amount of black smoke, it’s probably being fueled by burning tires or other petroleum product……..and Yes, eerily similiar to the Trades!
(^) As I typed…

Unrelated but IIRC, there was a risk of mustard gas or some other WWI era chemical warfare agent forming due to the large amount of burning ammonia in the centrifugal compressors used to cool the towers.