To increase safety after a nasty incident which hospitalized 24 of its warehouse workers last year, Amazon has made the decision to build an entirely new warehouse to hold the more risky products in its line-up. This includes chemicals and flammable materials, to name a couple examples.
According to Wired, the warehouse will be 500,000 square feet in size, and it will be the first fulfillment center of this nature to be built by the retail giant – except for an 80,000 square foot "test site" which was constructed in Virginia during 2018.
As Amazon vice president of health Carletta Ooton told Wired in a statement, the facility will feature technology specifically designed to help employees "handle consumer goods that could be a health hazard."
While we don't know precisely what form that tech will take, we do know that the warehouse will also feature a "special sprinkler system," which will be triggered should a hazardous product catch fire. As another safety measure, robots won't be allowed to handle said products.
The warehouse is set to begin operation as soon as this summer. Storing certain products in a completely separate place will undoubtedly bog down shipping a bit for combined orders (some customers prefer to get an entire order in one delivery), the benefits will likely be worth it to Amazon – at the very least, the warehouse could help them avoid any further safety-related PR disasters.