Federal Agency Investigating Chemical Plant Fire in Georgia After Evacuations

Smoke billows from a fire at the BioLab facility in Conyers, Ga., on Sept. 29, 2024. Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP

A federal agency is investigating a Georgia chemical plant fire that sent a massive plume of smoke into the air this week, prompting a shelter-in-place advisory and evacuation zone east of Atlanta.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said in a statement that it is sending a team to the BioLab plant in Conyers to assess what it called a “major chemical fire.”

“We are sending investigators to the site to determine the cause of this dangerous incident and the safety gaps at the facility that allowed this huge fire to occur. Tens of thousands of people have been put potentially at risk by this catastrophe,” the agency’s head, Steve Owens, said in the statement on Monday.

Rockdale County, which has a population of more than 90,000, was under a shelter-in-place advisory and an evacuation zone since a fire broke out on Sunday morning at the BioLab plant in Conyers, Georgia. But on Monday evening, the Rockdale County Emergency Management Agency lifted the “shelter in place recommendation and the evacuation zone, effective immediately,” it said.

But hours later, on Tuesday morning, the county reversed course, saying that residents should “shelter in place if the plume moves over your vicinity or if there is a strong odor of chlorine.”

“If you have respiratory issues, we encourage you to shelter in place,” the advisory said. “We will provide an update as quickly as possible.”

The county said on its website that the smoke plume “has consistently shifted throughout the night” and that officials “are aware and assessing the situation.”

The county’s government buildings will remain closed on Tuesday, Rockdale officials said. Those offices were also closed on Monday due to the smoke.

Closer to the source of the fire, officials said that chlorine, a harmful irritant chemical, had been detected in the air from the fire at the BioLab plant in Conyers, Georgia, the Rockdale County government said in a statement on Monday. The plant is about 25 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta.

The best practice for sheltering in place is to “turn the air conditioning off and keep windows and doors shut,” Rockdale County officials have said.

Emergency management officials in Fulton County, which encompasses much of Atlanta, said people concerned about the haze or smell should follow the same advice: Stay indoors, close windows and doors, and turn off the air conditioning.

The BioLab fire ignited when a sprinkler head malfunctioned around 5 a.m. on Sunday at the BioLab plant in Conyers, Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel told reporters the same day. The malfunction caused water to mix with a water-reactive chemical, producing a plume of chemicals.

The fire was brought under control by about 4 p.m. on Sunday, officials said.

Georgia’s largest school system, the Gwinnett County Public School District, initially canceled all outdoor activities and events on Monday. School officials said they’ve also taken steps to prevent outside air from entering its buildings.

But on Monday afternoon, the school system reversed course and said that after-school activities could be held.

The DeKalb County School District also announced that no after-school outdoor activities or athletics would take place on Monday.

Closer to the fire, students in Rockdale County Public Schools were already out of the school for a fall break. In nearby Newton County, schools closed on Monday, partly because of the large size of the evacuation zone.

In a statement on Sept. 30, BioLab said it is “grateful to the partnership with first responders and local and federal authorities as we together work non-stop to remediate the ongoing situation” in Conyers.

“We have made significant progress throughout the day, assisted by the deployment of out-of-state specialist support,” it said, adding that “air emissions are being actively monitored at the site and in the community by state, local, and federal authorities” and that it is “supporting the efforts of local authorities as part of the Unified Command response to the incident.”

The BioLab plant manufactures pool and spa products, according to the company’s website, noting that it is a division of the Lawrenceville, Georgia-based KIK Consumer Products. The Conyers plant opened in 1973.

In September 2020, a chemical fire at the same plant in Conyers prompted officials to shut down Interstate 20, according to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. In that incident, nine firefighters were taken to hospitals after inhaling hazardous emissions, it said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.