South Park, Charlotte fire: 2 dead after garage collapse; crane worker saved
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SouthPark Fire
On May 18, 2023, a five-alarm fire broke out at a construction site in SouthPark. Two men died as a result of the blaze.
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Editor’s note: This story was updated May 19 with additional information about the fire and the two men who died in it.
A massive fire spread across at least two structures and threatened others in Charlotte’s South Park neighborhood Thursday morning. With the bulk of flames under control early afternoon, fire personnel said potential hot-spots remained under close watch.
Two workers who were in the construction zone where the fire broke out were not accounted for as of 5:30 p.m. Thursday, officials said. Nearby businesses, threatened by the fire’s embers, evacuated and closed.
On Friday, Charlotte Fire Department fire chief Reginald Johnson confirmed at a news conference that the remains of two people were recovered Friday morning. The supervisor of the two victims identified them as Demonte Tyree Sherrill and Rueben Holmes.
Johnson said the fire was accidental and started in a spray-foam insulation trailer at the construction site. So far investigators have not been able to determine what caused the initial spark.
The five-alarm fire, which reached temperatures above 2,000 degrees, started at 9 a.m., Johnson said at an earlier news conference. The earliest sign of trouble came from a construction crew member’s 911 call reporting a trailer had caught fire inside the garage, according to emergency radio traffic obtained by The Charlotte Observer via Broadcastify.
The first firefighters to arrive said the flaming trailer couldn’t be moved. It wasn’t hooked up to a vehicle, the radio traffic indicates.
Workers evacuated as alarms signaled more ladder trucks — and eventually all-hands. The initial vehicle fire escalated to a structure fire almost immediately.
Fueled by the stacks of wood littering the construction site, the flames grew, and not everyone could evacuate.
The first firefighters to arrive would deliver the harrowing news: Two people were trapped on an upper floor of the parking garage, with the flames growing a couple levels below them.
Crews rushing in were commanded to “back out” and stand back within the first 20 to 30 minutes of working the fire — as fire leaders saw the warning signs of an unstable structure, ready to collapse.
By 10 a.m., the garage partially collapsed, according to officials and emergency radio traffic.
More than 90 firefighters from five neighboring departments flocked to the SouthPark Towers area through Thursday afternoon. Stray flames and fiery debris still whipped around the area — near Fairview Road and Piedmont Row Drive — at about 1:30 p.m.
Local workers and residents independently tried to put out small fires that popped up along the neighborhood’s closed streets.
The issue of construction safety has recently been a significant concern around fast-growing Charlotte.
On Jan. 2, three Charlotte construction workers died and two others were injured when scaffolding they were on collapsed The three who died — Jose Canaca, Gilberto Monico Fernández and Jesus “Chuy” Olivares — fell about 70 feet while working at a construction site on Morehead Street, near uptown Charlotte and Dilworth.
Some rescued, 2 missing
Firefighters rescued 15 workers who got stuck in the building, according to officials. They had to issue two mayday calls for help after getting trapped in the fire themselves, Johnson said.
Paramedics took one construction worker, who was stuck in a crane for more than an hour, to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
The crane operator’s wife watched from the ground as firefighters tried to rescue him, according to Nate Johnson, a man who stood next to her while flames crept beneath the machine.
She watched, her eyes were red with tears, as her husband tried to lower people down and out of the building with the crane, he said.
“The flames got so high to the point where he had to shut the crane off, close up the doors, wrap himself and his face and pour cold water all on his body,” he said.
Firefighters rescued the operator about 11 a.m. and took him to the hospital for smoke inhalation treatment, he said.
About two hours later, a man approached officials near the collapsed garage asking for information about his brother — another worker who live streamed a video with his phone while he was stuck in the building. The stream showed him being engulfed by flames, the man told reporters. Now, they can’t find him.
Glenn Freeman was delivering windows outside the building when it caught fire. He said workers were in the garage when flames quickly took over. He’d heard a machine caught fire in the building, but he wasn’t sure exactly what happened. Officials have not yet commented on what started the fire.
“The black smoke was rolling out of the building,” he said. “And then they told me I had to get my stuff out of the truck.”
But he didn’t have time to, he said.
South Park evacuations
Fire alarms indicated the flames initially spread to Modera SouthPark, a two-building apartment complex still under construction. Another small fire burned across the street, but firefighters quickly vented the building by drilling holes in the roof.
Police sent an alert calling for Piedmont Town Center to evacuate all areas near Fairview Road, Park South and Barclay Downs, property manager Lincoln Harris said. Duckworth’s Grill & Taphouse, located in the complex, said officials ordered the business to evacuate and was close Thursday. They plan to reopen at night, a spokesperson said.
“Do not delay evacuation,” the alert said.
A nearby Marriott Residence Inn evacuated guests and went through at least four of their own fire extinguishers, according to a worker. People who worked and lived near the area took to the streets with their own fire extinguishers, putting out smaller fires as they popped up.
One worker lost track of how many fire extinguishers he commandeered. At one point it was four, then he stopped counting, he told the Observer.
Fire alarms woke up inn guest Peter Joseph around 10:30 a.m. He rushed out, leaving everything but his phone and car keys behind. By 12:30 p.m., he perched on a concrete ledge and watched as firefighters battled flames shooting out from the garage across the street.
“I’m stuck,” he said as wind whipped up smoke and charred debris while he talked to his wife in Georgia.
He didn’t want to go back into the room in case something happened to the building while he was inside. He could go try to nap in his parked car, he said, but he and his wife knew he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep.
Fortunately, his laptop was at work. His clothes and other things he brought could be replaced. For now, all he had to do was watch and wait for the all clear.
Emergency 911 situation
With a huge response from Charlotte Fire, Medic and police, officials urged the public to not use 911 Thursday except in true emergency situations.
NC Emergency Management officials continue to monitor the scene and “are ready to respond as needed, but at this point it is a Charlotte-Mecklenburg response,” spokesman Brian Haines said.
Thursday night, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper praised emergency workers for their efforts at the scene.
“Grateful for the firefighters and first responders working to keep people safe from the South Park fire in Charlotte,” Cooper said on Twitter.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyes said she was watching the fire along with residents.
“...We’re really thankful for our police and fire who have it under control,” she said.
Mill Creek Residential, the developer for the apartment complex that caught fire next to the parking structure, said its first priority is the health and safety of the people working at the apartments and the surrounding area.
“Our thoughts are with those who were impacted and their friends and family members. We are gathering as much information as possible on what occurred and will take the appropriate measures to address today’s incident,” a spokesperson said.
Staff Writer Joe Marusak contributed.
This story was originally published May 18, 2023 at 10:05 AM.
