A fire broke out at the Walmart Distribution Center located 9590 AllPoints Road in the Avon-Plainfield area on Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at approximately 1:00 PM. An estimated 1,000 employees were inside the building. However, according to both Deputy Chief Joe Aldridge of the Plainfield Police Department and Walmart, all employees were safely evacuated. Employees were bussed to the new Amazon facility for reunification.
The billowing smoke from the blaze could be seen for miles, including from Bainbridge, IN. As the fire raged, small explosions could be heard as the fire shot from the truck parked just outside of the facility.
The distribution center at 9590 AllPoints Road is reported to be 1.2 million square feet. According to Walmart Corporation, the center averages the unloading and shipping of over 200 trailers per day.
Residents in the area were advised by emergency personnel to stay indoors, keeping their doors and windows shut. Vehicles driving close to the area were advised to keep their windows up. As the fire continued, however, many vehicles were turned away to make way for additional fire trucks, tanker trucks, and other emergency services.
According to Plainfield Fire Chief Brent Anderson, about 180 to 200 firefighters were at the scene Wednesday afternoon.
"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 also stated it could take weeks to investigate the cause of the fire, but he believes contents inside the building played a role in how it spread.
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.
As of 5pm Wednesday, March 16, 2022, crews were still arriving (including DNR) to help combat the fire.
