By Nora O’Neill
The Charlotte Observer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte Fire Department officials said they have a plan to improve rescues and avoid fires like the SouthPark blaze that killed two workers trapped on an upper floor.
CFD Chief Reginald Johnson on Monday presented an after-action report of the five-alarm SouthPark fire to the Charlotte City Council’s Housing, Safety and Community Committee. It detailed what went wrong in May 2023 and what the department needs to do to prevent a similar incident.
The SouthPark fire, which reached 2,000 degrees, occurred at a seven-story, mid-rise building with five stories of wooden construction, no fire suppression systems and no drywall, Johnson said. The building was under construction at the time. As construction across Charlotte shows no signs of slowing down, Johnson said the department is making necessary changes to prevent deadly construction fires.
“That was probably the largest fire in recent history, if not all the history, of the Charlotte Fire Department,” he said. “We are not alone. There are a number of construction fires that have gone on for decades… This is the type of construction that’s going on all over the city, so it’s important that we have this conversation.”
Following the presentation, committee members thanked Johnson for his work and brought up concerns about the department, including that it was not properly staffed, it abolished a construction team in 2018, and that a forest fire truck arrived late. Johnson dispelled the concerns, saying the department has a full staff, no construction team was cut and the truck arrived on time.
“We are still in prayer, not only for our residents whose families are facing the loss of their loved ones, but for all of our firefighters, (and) in reality, the trauma that was faced to go into a five-alarm and not have everything that should have been in place,” committee vice chair LaWana Mayfield said.
SouthPark fire details
The SouthPark fire occurred at the construction site of what would have been a 239-unit luxury apartment building. Over 200 firefighters responded and rescued 15 people from the fire. It took nearly six hours to get the blaze under control.
Two construction workers, Reuben Holmes and Demonte Sherrill, died in the fire after making a call to their boss saying they were unable to find an exit. The Charlotte Observer reported the pair were about a football field away from the only exit at the time of the call, raising questions about the safety of the construction site.
After the incident, the fire department revealed the apartment complex, Modera SouthPark, didn’t alert officials about construction and progress, as Mecklenburg County requires. Observer reporting also probed deeper into fire science expert worries about the prevalence of wood-frame buildings like the one in SouthPark. Fire prevention experts also spoke with the Observer about whether buildings like the one that caught on fire should be required to have more exits.
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Late last year, the state labor department fined three companies a total of $56,000 for violations related to the fire. Families of the men who died also sued the developer and others, saying the deaths were preventable.
What needs to be done?
Johnson said the Charlotte Fire Department learned lessons after the SouthPark fire: the fire spread faster than could be managed by the incident command system and there was a lack of radio discipline, which meant too many people were speaking rather than listening. Too many firefighters also showed up to the fire and made organization unmanageable the department’s report revealed.
Johnson said there needed to be a better selection of water supply, too.
Johnson’s recommendations include:
▪ Implement more command field technicians and conduct more training for the technicians who are responsible for managing communications and aiding firefighters.
▪ Staff the field communications unit.
▪ Increase survival training.
The department already sent employees to the National Fire Training Academy for incident command, water supply and mayday training, Johnson said. The department also conducted a field technician pilot program, which he said was a success.
“Let’s be proactive instead of reactive, right? We had some very close calls on this particular fire where we could have lost up to four or five firefighters trying to make an attempt there. As I said, the fire outpaced the incident command system,” Johnson said.
▪ Develop guidelines for dealing with help from other departments.
▪ Look for ways to technologically enhance fire truck tracking.
▪ Consider a consolidated dispatch center for the fire department, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and medics.
The department has made progress toward reaching these goals, Johnson said, and has already hired 12 additional fire inspection employees and compiled a new construction inspection team. Officials also examined software to improve unit tracking.
Johnson said there were“false reports” the fire department was called to inspect the construction site seven days before the fire. The department did not know vertical construction started on the building, he said. The 12 new employees will allow the department to be more involved with pre-permitting discussions, preventing similar oversight in the future.
One notable effort, Johnson said, is the department worked with the National Fire Protection Association and the North Carolina General Assembly to require construction sites have a fire protection program manager tasked with handling safety efforts starting in January.
“I want to assure you all that although we haven’t been able to accomplish all the recommendations as of today, that our goal is to meet and implement each one of those recommendations,” Johnson said. “(I’m) very proud of the men and women here and the work that they do every day and putting their lives on the line when it’s time to do so.”
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