A day after a chemical factory fire blasted a large column of dark smoke high into the sky visible for miles, authorities ordered more than 90,000 residents in a county east of Atlanta to remain indoors and businesses to remain closed on Monday.
Air quality inspections conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Environmental Protection Division “revealed the harmful irritant chlorine” discovered in the air following the fire at the BioLab factory in Conyers, Georgia, according to a Rockdale County government statement issued early Monday.
“For everyone sheltering in place, the best practice is to turn the air conditioning off and keep windows and doors shut,” according to a statement.
At 4 p.m. on Sunday, officials say they brought the fire under control.
Interstate 20, which had been closed in both directions in the area Sunday, reopened Monday morning, according to officials. Officials also closed some other county routes and government offices.
People in northern Rockdale County, north of Interstate 20, were instructed to evacuate on Sunday, while others were told to shelter in place.
The Sheriff’s Office representative Christine Nesbitt said she didn’t know the exact number of people evacuated, but it included a significant portion of Conyers. According to media reports, the total number was 17,000.
According to Rockdale County incident Chief Marian McDaniel, the incident started when a sprinkler head malfunctioned around 5 a.m. Sunday at the BioLab factory in Conyers. The malfunction allowed water to interact with a water-reactive chemical, resulting in a chemical plume.
McDaniel stated that there were personnel inside the plant, but no injuries were reported, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
According to their website, BioLab is the swimming pool and spa water care branch of KIK Consumer Products, situated in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
Additionally, the corporation reported no injuries.
“Our top priority is ensuring the community’s safety, and our teams are working around-the-clock to respond to the ongoing situation at our facility in Conyers, Georgia,” a spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “We continue to work collaboratively with first responders and local authorities and have deployed specialized teams from out of state to the site to bolster and support their efforts. We are all focused on remediating the situation as rapidly as possible.”
Authorities said that they temporarily extinguished a tiny fire on the plant’s roof before it rekindled Sunday afternoon.
