If you were anywhere in central Indiana Wednesday, you probably saw the tower of black smoke caused by the fire that burned the Walmart distribution center in Avon. Plainfield Asst. Fire Chief Joe Aldridge said in a Wednesday press conference that the building was 1.2 million sq. ft. Even with it being that large, the safety plan for the building helped in getting all 1,000 employees evacuated safely.
“It sounds like there was lots of clothing in the area where the fire started, wrapped in plastic and such. It spread very quickly. But, I think with the advanced warning systems and the accountability systems, Walmart did a very good job here of evacuating the building and making sure people were safe,” he said.
Aldridge would not confirm where the fire started, and said determining the cause could take a while.
“Right now we have no idea what may have started this. No reason to believe it’s suspicious or anything. But, we’ll do our due diligence over the days and weeks to figure that out.”
He said the ATF would be the lead agency investigating the fire. Agents were interviewing Walmart employees before letting them go home.
Aldridge said one firefighter was hurt, but the injuries were minor, and some firefighters got turned around and lost in the first few minutes of fighting the fire, but the situation was quickly “rectified”.
He said firefighter training was partly responsible for the containment of the fire, but the proximity of that training was responsible for a quick response.
“The fire department was here within three minutes of being dispatched- just happened to be…right down the road doing some training.”
He said 18 fire departments from all over the area responded to the fire and ran into problems getting enough water. They eventually began trucking some water in and pumping it out of a pond.
Aldridge repeatedly credited the systems that were in place for safety and the training of the fire departments involved for the containment of the fire, but said he believed it would still be burning well into Wednesday evening and maybe longer.
