Fertilizer Fire
I was all set to make today a light and fun post wishing a happy Lunar New Year to all who are celebrating, but last night, we got word of a fertilizer fire not far from campus, and that has dominated activity since then.
To bring you up to speed, we sent an initial message last night to students and families about evacuations related to the fire; the Winston-Salem Fire Department was asking for the evacuation of residents living within a one-mile radius. We then sent an update late last night announcing classes today were canceled.
We had an update message this morning to students and families about the status of the fertilizer fire and the impact to campus, including supports available to students. The Winston-Salem Fire Department said that the evacuation request will be in place until around 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 2 and then will be reassessed. We have a Support Center located in the Wellbeing Center for students who need assistance.
President Wente, Provost Kersh, Executive Vice President Milam, and Vice President Kidd Brown also sent a message to campus; read it here.
We are working on an update email that will be sent to students, as well as parents and families. If it doesn’t make the Daily Deac 5 pm deadline, look for it in your email or at wakealert.wfu.edu
As a mom myself (of a junior in high school), I imagine I would feel a great deal of anxiety if this was happening near his college. What I can tell you is that our Crisis Management Team has been meeting continuously since last night. We have a wide variety of people on that team who have expertise in their areas, and I trust them implicitly. Our goal is the same as yours: the safety of our students and the campus community.
Because we are all working feverishly on the operational situation at hand, we cannot be as responsive as we normally would to calls and emails. As I always do, I promise to share any feedback with our leadership team working with this situation; I cannot promise an individual reply.
Two other non-crisis notes. First, you may have seen that the fall football schedule has been released. Options for Family Weekend are currently being explored; the date will be announced as soon as details are finalized, and no later than the end of February. As soon as we know the date, we will share in all the regular channels. Second, Letters So Dear went out yesterday to our ’25s.
Thank you for your patience and grace as we navigate this together.