Fire at Indianapolis-area Walmart Distribution Center in Plainfield - IndyStar

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4:18 p.m. — Reunification center set up for Walmart employees

Deputy Chief Joe Aldridge of Plainfield PD said a reunification center for Walmart employees has been set up at 1750 Smith Road. It’s a new Amazon facility, he said.

EARLIER: Walmart distribution center on fire

Around 1,000 employees were inside a Walmart Distribution Center in Plainfield Wednesday afternoon when a fire broke out, but no injuries have yet been reported.

Crews battled the blaze as the fire sent large plumes of smoke into the air, visible from miles away. Small explosions could be heard as flames shot out of trucks parked outside the building.

The structure fire at the distribution center, 9590 Allpoints Parkway, began around 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 16, according to a Facebook post from the Avon Police Department.

Each Walmart distribution center is more than 1 million square feet in size and employs more than 600 personnel, unloading and shipping over 200 trailers daily, according to a corporate page for the company.

According to a 2014 news release, the distribution center in Plainfield was listed at 1.2 million square feet.

Plainfield fire: Photos, video show smoke billowing from Walmart distribution center

"Walmart does believe that all the employees are accounted for at this time and they are being transported by Plainfield school buses to a reunification site," said Deputy Chief Joe Aldridge of the Plainfield Police Department.

There were no reports of injured firefighters as of Wednesday afternoon, Aldridge said.

Residents in neighborhoods north of the facility are asked to stay indoors and keep their windows and doors shut, Aldridge said.

Plainfield Fire Chief Brent Anderson said nearby residents should shelter in place or stay away from the area. Residents should also avoid coming into contact with any debris that falls in their yard from the fire, he said.

Walmart fire: Video shows the massive fire, smoke plumes in Plainfield

A massive fire in Plainfield, Indiana, sent huge plumes of smoke into the air and damaged a Walmart distribution center facility.

Joe Mutascio/IndyStar, Wochit

"If you can think of it, it's probably there," Anderson said, speaking about the contents inside the distribution center. "The noises and stuff you hear, yes, they are described as 'explosions' but it's the semi-truck tires and stuff getting overheated then rupturing."

About 180 to 200 firefighters were at the scene Wednesday afternoon, Anderson said.

"We will have to decrease our operations here soon due to water," Anderson said. 'We are looking at additional options. There is locally a pond we can use some water out of. We are exploring every option right now but we are going to have slow down our operations here soon due to water consumption."

Anderson said it could take weeks to investigate the cause of the fire, but said he believes contents inside the building played a role in how it spread.

"The main contributor of the spreading was the heavy contents of the structure," Anderson said. "That building is full of contents floor to ceiling multiple levels."

The building did have a "state of the art" advanced warning system for fires that was functioning when crews arrived, Anderson said. The system may have been overwhelmed by the amount of materials inside, but that is yet to be determined, he said.

This is a developing story and will be updated when more information is available.

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