A fire at a chemical plant in Rockdale County sent a colossal plume of smoke into the sky Sunday and has indefinitely upended daily life in that area.
The fire at BioLab, a chemical facility on Old Covington Road in Conyers, led to the evacuation order of about 17,000 people and several road closures, including I-20, on Sunday afternoon. The interstate reopened by Monday morning, but several roads remain closed, and the smoke — now a chemical reaction and not a fire — will remain visible for several days.
On Sunday, the massive plume was visible from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — about 30 miles away.
How does this affect you?
A shelter-in-place order remains in effect for all of Rockdale County, which has a population of just over 90,000, according to the 2020 census. It is not clear when that order will lift.
“In the best interest and safety of the public and all citizens, it is recommended that businesses close operations until shelter-in-place is lifted,” county officials said Monday. " For everyone sheltering in place, the best practice is to turn the air conditioning off and keep windows and doors shut.”
Officials in Fulton and Gwinnett counties also reported hazy skies and a chemical odor Monday.
In Gwinnett, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is recommending anyone in the direct plume to stay inside but has not recommended a shelter-in-place order for the county.
The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency issued a public safety alert Monday afternoon in metro Atlanta detailing a “local area emergency” due to the fire. The alert was issued on behalf of the Environmental Protection Division and stated the EPA was monitoring air quality for chlorine and related compounds.
“Chemical levels are unlikely to cause harm to most people,” the alert stated.
A GEMA representative said the alert went out statewide but it only affects anyone within a 50-mile radius of Rockdale County.
What caused the fire?
It is unclear what sparked the fire, which started on the facility’s roof Sunday morning. It was initially extinguished but reignited that afternoon, triggering the building’s sprinkler system, which then caused water to mix with a water-reactive chemical.
Workers had already been trying to move the chemical away from the water source but had not done so by the time the fire reignited.
The flames were brought under control by 4 p.m., and the plant’s roof and walls have since collapsed. No injuries were reported, though some employees were inside the plant at the time.
What chemicals were released?
What we know as of Monday is that chlorine was released into the air, but environmental officials are still investigating the extent of the exposure.
An air quality survey conducted by the EPA and Georgia’s EPD “revealed the harmful irritant chlorine, which was detected in the air emitting from the incident location of BioLab.”
According to the company’s website, BioLab “is the swimming pool and spa water care division of KIK Consumer Products.” That company is based in Lawrenceville.
Has this happened before?
Rockdale County fire Chief Marian McDaniel said it was the third such incident of “this magnitude” at the plant in at least seven years.
In September 2020, a “TCCA reaction and decomposition” caused another plume of hazardous chemicals to be released into the air at the Conyers plant, exposing facility personnel and nine firefighters to “dangerous fumes,” according to a U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board report. Surrounding businesses were evacuated and a section of I-20 was closed for about six hours.
The report stated another decomposition involving TCCA happened four days later at the plant, but no one was injured.
“TCCA is used throughout the country in pool care and, when put in large bodies of water such as a pool, breaks down slowly, releasing chlorine in the water,” the report added. “However, when TCCA comes into contact with small amounts of water and does not dissolve, it can undergo a chemical reaction that generates heat, causing the decomposition of TCCA, which produces toxic chlorine gas.”
It is not clear if the same chemical was involved in Sunday’s incident.
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