By Lorenzo Smith, Inspector Operations Manager
The 2022 Plainfield Wal-Mart Warehouse Fire sent shockwaves through the fire industry, resulting in the complete loss of the 1.2 million square foot facility and nearly taking the lives of three firefighters.
The fire started in the storage racks of the warehouse, which crisscrossed the facility, and nearly reached the ceiling. Firefighters with the Plainfield Fire Territory were on scene in less than five minutes, and not long after believed they had contained the blaze.
The command was given to shut off the facility’s complex sprinkler system and begin ventilating the building. Roughly 10 minutes later, firefighters on the roof reported smoke and flames erupting from the building’s center.
The fire developed quickly and blanketed the building’s interior with thick, black smoke. Three firefighters who remained in between where the fire had started were nearly trapped.
In the years since, members of the Plainfield Fire Territory, including Deputy Chief Jeff Dixon and Lieutenant Matt King have worked with the National Fire Sprinkler Association to develop a seminar covering what mistakes were made that day, and what changes their department has made to fix them.
Tech Electronics had the pleasure of attending this seminar in St. Louis last week with our first responder and AHJ partners to learn how incidents like this impact firefighting tactics and the fire and life safety systems we design and install.
Procedure Changes
The Plainfield Fire Territory has implemented a number of changes to their procedures when responding to fires at these facilities.
When these warehouses are involved, the department’s fire protection specialists are on scene as much as possible to monitor the sprinkler and fire panels so that indications of fire or reignition are not overlooked.
They have also moved away from guidance to turn off suppression systems like sprinklers to avoid water damage in these warehouses.
Dixon said the risks far outweighed the benefits and they now leave suppression systems running for some time to ensure the fire has been completely extinguished.
The department also submitted a code suggestion for the next edition of the National Fire Protection Association’s fire codes, requesting that risers are equipped with a light indicating which risers have water flowing.
Confusion surrounding the warehouse’s suppression system and which risers were connected to which sprinklers led to the wrong risers being deactivated, leaving parts of the warehouse unprotected during the incident.
Radio Communications
The building’s steel roof structure and steel racking caused significant interference with the firefighters’ radios and many of the recordings from the incident are partially, or completely unintelligible.
These lapses in communication placed first responders in danger as they could not communicate with command from inside the building. The Plainfield Fire Territory now employs a mobile repeater to amplify their trunked 800 MHz radio on calls in large buildings like this one.
ERCES installations are another solution to communications problems like these in large facilities.
ERCES is used to amplify radio signals for first responders at a building using a donor antenna, which then amplifies incoming and outgoing radio communications through a bi-directional amplifier.
The BDA redistributes radio signals throughout the interior of the building, ensuring consistent communication throughout a facility.
Although requirements for radio coverage, and ERCES, have been in the International Fire Code through the appendix since 2009, and the body of the code since 2012, many jurisdictions do not enforce these requirements.
With incidents like the Plainfield fire, their enforcement is becoming more common as AHJs recognize the importance of maintaining radio communications for their first responders.
For more information about ERCES requirements, and whether they may be required at your facility, schedule a consultation.
