Comparing Charlotte’s SouthPark and Raleigh’s Metropolitan Fires

Let’s comparing and contrasting Charlotte’s SouthPark fire (May 2023) and Raleigh’s Metropolitan fire (March 2017). See our prior posting about the Charlotte fire.


	Charlotte SouthPark Fire May 18, 2023 7740 Liberty Row Drive Five alarms	Raleigh Metropolitan Fire March 16, 2017 400 W. North Street Five alarms
Building	Apartments under construction Seven stories, ~250,000 s.f. Includes lower-level parking deck Occupied by ~100 workers	Apartments under construction Five stories, 275,000 s.f. Unoccupied
Weather	66 degrees, winds 14-16 mph from ENE s	35 degrees, clear skies, calm winds
Arrival Conditions	Smoke showing from lower-level parking deck	Heavy fire showing from front of structure on multiple floors
Times	9:04 a.m. (first) 9:10 a.m. (second) 9:20 a.m. (third) 9:31 a.m. (fourth) (automatic for mayday) 9:56 a.m. (fifth) TBD control time	10:03 p.m. (first) 10:06 p.m. (second) 10:08 p.m. (third) 10:11 p.m. (fourth) 11:32 p.m. (fifth) 1:10 a.m. control time
Streams	Seven aerial streams __ portable monitors	Four aerials streams Five portable monitors
Hydrants	__ hydrants	10 hydrants
Units / Personnel	20 engines 10 aerials 2 rescues 2 haz-mat 6 BCs 90+ FFs	24 engines 7 aerials 1 rescue 5 BCs ~130 FFs
Tower Crane	Tower crane remained intact Operator rescued	Tower crane collapse Unoccupied
Injuries / Fatalities	15 workers rescued Two workers killed Mayday for two crews of firefighters, not injured	5 people treated for smoke inhalation One firefighter injured by falling glass
Exposures	Occupied exposures included Hilton Canopy. Damage to exterior. Roof fires on nearby buildings included Park South Drive, managed as separate incident, with separate run card.	513,761 square-feet of four primary exposures, including two occupied high-rises, Link Apartments and Quorum Center. Both managed as separate incidents but using same run card. Displaced 257+ residents. Exterior and interior damage to both buildings. Plus fires on other exposures.
Loss / Cause	Caused by vehicle fire in parking deck, ignition cause under investigation.	$50-51 million project cost $62.5 million loss, per NFPA Sixth largest fire loss in 2017Cause undermined.
Mutual Aid Coverage	From 10+ departments, including one from South Carolina.	From 15 departments.
Medical Resources	TBD	12 EMS ambulances 5 district chiefs 1 advance practice paramedic unit 1 major incident support unit 1 ambulance bus. ~32 medics