The local ATF office in Charlotte, North Carolina just called for help from the department’s National Response Team, to investigate the inferno which tore through the QVC distribution center in Rocky Mount.
ATF swarming in
On Tuesday, December 21, The Charlotte Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced that they need more resources to investigate “the major structural fire at a QVC distribution center in North Carolina.”
The ATF National Response Team is swarming in. The sprawling facility went up in a blaze of glory on Saturday.
Crews from six counties were needed to battle the blaze and one fatality has been confirmed. According to fire officials, “approximately 75 percent of the 1.5 million square foot facility was damaged in the fire.”
They note the “cause of the fire remains under investigation” but it must look suspicious enough to to call in a whole team of ATF experts.
A spokesperson for Edgecombe County notes that they need the help due to the “large number of resources required to investigate the incident.”
The special response team “provides an immediate and sustained nationwide response capability, typically deploying within 24 hours of notification, with state-of-the-art equipment and highly qualified ATF personnel specializing in fire origin and cause determination.”
Huge part of community
The QVC television shopping network isn’t just another local business. The distribution center in Rocky Mount is one of six in the nation. According to ATF Charlotte Field Division’s Special Agent in Charge Vince Pallozzi, this “is a very important collaboration, given the size of this facility and the role this distribution center played in the community.”
That’s why they will “work in partnership with local and state fire and law enforcement agencies to assist in any way we can.”
The destruction left an estimated 2,000 people out of work. The call came in around 2 a.m. Saturday and Heartsease Fire Chief James Bowen reports “it took about 12 minutes for his firefighters to arrive at the scene.” As soon as he got there he knew it was going to be huge.
“When we got there, I called for Tarboro and Rocky Mount because it was clear it (the fire) wasn’t a one-man show.” It also must have looked suspicious because ATF is “the federal agency with jurisdiction for investigating fires and crimes of arson.”
There isn’t much the company can do until the ATF completes an investigation but QVC told employees “it will pay them at least through the end of December.”
They also expressed their sympathies and condolences the family of 21-year-old Kevon Ricks, who “was discovered in an area that had not been reached by the fire.” His body was recovered Sunday morning.
