JOHNSTON, R.I. — More than a year after its grand opening, a massive Amazon warehouse in Rhode Island has failed to follow basic fire safety practices, used town rescue trucks as a “medical Uber,” and brushed off requests for additional firefighting equipment, Mayor Joseph M. Polisena and Fire Chief Keith A. Calci told the Globe in an interview.
During the July 2025 ribbon-cutting ceremony for Amazon’s $400 million robotics fulfillment center, Polisena declared it “a proud day for Johnston.” The 3.8-million-square-foot, five-story building, which stretches nearly a quarter-mile on a hill with a view of the Providence skyline, promised to bring more than 1,500 jobs to this town of about 30,000 residents.
There have been complaints about poor working conditions, high volumes of rescue calls, and safety issues at other Amazon warehouses around the country, including in New England, where about 30 fulfillment and sorting distribution centers are located. And it wasn’t long before calls for rescues at the Johnston facility began to escalate.
Since the Amazon facility opened, firefighters have responded there about 200 times through Sept. 26, roughly four times a week, according to Johnston records.
About 160 of those calls from the Amazon facility were for some type of medical assistance, including complaints of chest pain, back pain, psychiatric problems, pregnancy issues, and “sick person.”
While some calls were for workplace-related issues, such as an eye injury reported on Sept. 9, Calci said most of the emergency calls appear to be for people who take ill while at work.
“Our rescue crews come back and tell us that the people that work there say that they can’t call in sick, or they’ll risk being fired,” Calci said. “So they come to work sick and then call us, and the rescue has to go pick them up.”
Sam Stephenson, an Amazon spokesperson, said in an interview that employees get paid annual “flexible time,” which includes sick time, of 40 hours for part-time workers and up to 48 hours for full-time employees, and they are encouraged to call 911 any time they feel it’s necessary.
“It’s important to keep these numbers in perspective,” Stephenson said of the rescue calls. “Thousands of people work at this site, and our own records show only a small fraction of these calls were related to work. The vast majority were for personal health matters, and of course we encourage our team to take care of themselves first and foremost, whether they’re at home or at work.”
But the mayor said he’s concerned that town rescue squads are being used as a type of “medical Uber.”
“The rescue system is to respond to emergencies as they happen,” Polisena said. “It should not be used as a medical taxi, so to speak.”
One worker at the facility, who asked to withhold his name out of fear of retribution, said that it’s difficult to take paid sick days and that employees instead end up taking unpaid time off.
“I look at it as this is a job where you stay at until you figure out what you really want to do,” he said. “It’s just something to keep you afloat, to survive.”
Calci said the high number of calls at the Amazon warehouse could put residents at risk by forcing the Johnston Fire Department to rely on rescue squads from neighboring towns, which would increase response times. (The Fire Department gets about 7,000 rescue calls a year, Calci said.)
In July, a 911 call for a fire in a conveyor belt on the second floor of the Johnston facility raised additional concerns about fire safety and cooperation by the retail giant.
No one had pulled the fire alarm, which delayed the response time, Calci said. Workers were told about the fire via two-way radio and ordered to leave the building.
When firefighters arrived, they were forced to push through a bottleneck of about 850 Amazon employees who were all trying to flee through the front entrance, instead of the 55 emergency exits that ring the building, Calci said.
“They have a very long distance to walk in that building,” Calci said. “So that was obviously a huge public safety concern for all of us.”
While Stephenson said the employees had cut the power to the equipment, the fire chief said Amazon officials balked when they were told to cut power to that area of the building, saying they needed to “check with corporate.”
The fire was quickly contained, and no one was injured. But as fire officials investigated the incident, Calci said, they were repeatedly pestered by Amazon officials about when employees could get back to work.
“Quite frankly, they’re lucky that was only a small fire,” Polisena said. “God forbid, if that was a large fire. They have a lot of people up there. If something doesn’t change, it’s only going to be a matter of time before something bad happens.”
A report by the Office of the State Fire Marshal concluded the fire was accidental — caused by friction when debris jammed under a running conveyor belt — and affirmed problems with the company’s fire safety practices.
Amazon and Johnston fire officials were meeting Tuesday to discuss evacuation procedures and other concerns. “In reviewing the July incident, we identified several opportunities to improve the execution of our emergency response procedures, and we immediately remediated those gaps,” Stephenson said.
He said Amazon has provided additional KnoxBoxes, which help first responders get into secure areas during an emergency. The building meets all relevant fire codes and regulations, he said. (The fire chief confirmed that the building is up to code.)
However, the fire chief said Amazon has not acted on multiple requests to place additional firefighting equipment throughout the building. Polisena said he was “surprised” and “disappointed” by Amazon’s failure to comply with the requests.
While firefighters carry 30 minutes of oxygen supply, it can take them 15 to 20 minutes to walk from the front entrance to the far end of the massive building, Calci said, and oxygen gets used up more quickly when firefighters are lugging hoses in or carrying people out.
Calci said they’ve asked Amazon to place hoses and compressed air tanks at various points inside the building. But Amazon has not yet done so, he said.
Amazon said that there was no formal request for the equipment, which is not required by code.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Amazon warehouses across the country for unsafe working conditions. In 2021, a Globe investigation found Amazon’s Fall River warehouse — which opened in 2017 — had one of the highest rates of worker injuries in Amazon’s national network of distribution centers.
The largest Amazon facility in Massachusetts is in North Andover, a town of about 32,000 people where a $400 million, 3.8-million-square-foot warehouse opened in April 2024.
North Andover Fire Chief John Weir said that Amazon warehouse also had a conveyor belt fire recently, but workers exited safely. “To be honest with you, we have not had a problem yet,” he said.
Deputy Fire Chief Graham Rowe said North Andover has responded to 71 calls from the Amazon facility this year, including 62 emergency medical service calls — less than two calls per week, compared to an average of four per week in Johnston.
In North Haven, Conn., the fire department has responded to Amazon’s 855,000-square-foot warehouse there 68 times in the past year, mostly for medical calls, Fire Chief Paul Januszewski said. They average less than two calls per week.
Stephenson said that since 2019, Amazon has invested more than $2.5 billion to “advance safety progress including innovations, ergonomic improvements, and training programs.” The company’s incident rate, which includes injuries that require more than basic first aid, has improved 43 percent, he said.
“Additionally, our global lost time incident rate, which includes any work-related injury that requires someone to take time away from work, has improved 70 percent,” Stephenson said.
States offer big incentives for Amazon to set up shop. As part of a 20-year tax deal in Johnston, Amazon is set to pay an average of $7.2 million a year in property taxes, and it committed to providing $5.3 million to add four additional firefighters to a nearby station.
Even so, the mayor and fire chief said Amazon hasn’t been responsive to their concerns about public safety and equipment.
“This is a company with a $1 trillion market cap,” Polisena said. “I mean, the company’s bigger than some small countries. There’s no excuse. Clearly, it’s not a money issue, right?”
Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her @AmandaMilkovits. Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.