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Some residents east of Atlanta were evacuated and others told to shelter in place after a fire at a chemical plant Sept. 29, 2024.
Credit: Rockdale County via X
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1 year after the BioLab fire in Conyers, investigations continue
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Monday is the first anniversary of the BioLab fire in Conyers, Ga., where investigations continue into the chemical plume that shrouded parts of metro Atlanta in smoke and debris.
The Sept. 29, 2024, fire prompted 17,000 evacuations, closed portions of I-20, and led to overnight shelter-in-place orders for weeks. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), a nonregulatory federal agency, called the fire “completely unacceptable” in its initial report, citing the need for stricter safety protocols for handling hazardous materials.
Below is a recap of events from the year. Tune into GPB's podcast, Manufacturing Danger: The BioLab Story, to learn more.
Sept. 29, 2024: The fire
5 a.m. — A popping sound alerts a BioLab employee assigned to fire watch duty at Plant 12 to a chemical reaction in the storage warehouse. The employee notices that products are wet, indicating the presence of water. Although no flames are visible at this time, the employee observes large toxic vapor plumes inside the building.
5:10 a.m. — After attempting to isolate the reacting product, a BioLab employee contacts 911.
5:10 to 6:30 a.m. — Rockdale County Fire Rescue arrives on scene. BioLab employees tell responding units that a sprinkler head is spraying water on the product, which is primarily trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA) stored in super-sacs.
6:30 a.m. — Flames become visible through the roof above the area where the chemical reaction and off-gassing were first observed.
7:40 a.m. — The first shelter-in-place order is issued for the surrounding community.
Approximately 8:10 a.m. — Firefighters extinguish the initial fire. Crews use forklifts to begin removing super-sacs of TCCA from Plant 12. They successfully remove 59 super-sacs before a fire is observed on the roof, forcing an evacuation of the building.
Around noon — A second, larger fire breaks out. Thick black smoke and multi-colored smoke plumes are observed.
12:57 p.m. — Interstate I-20, which runs parallel to the facility, is shut down.
Approximately 4 p.m. — The second fire is declared extinguished, but parts of the Plant 12 building have collapsed during the fire.
The initial aftermath
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), a nonregulatory federal agency, published an initial report from their investigation into the fire on Friday. The report called the Sept. 29 incident “completely unacceptable,” citing the need for stricter safety protocols for handling hazardous materials.
The CSB report said the fire released toxic vapors, including chlorine gas, at concentrations far above federal safety thresholds. Monitoring stations detected chlorine levels up to 20 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s acute exposure guidelines during the nights following the fire. Residents in a 2-mile radius were advised to shelter in place for several weeks. Rockdale County schools switched to virtual learning for weeks afterwards.
On Oct. 16, the final shelter-in-place warning was lifted. Cleanup and monitoring efforts continue with oversight be state and federal partners.
BioLab has said it was cooperating with the investigation.
In an email statement, a spokesperson for the company said, “We remain firmly committed to understanding the causes of the incident and to making things right for impacted area residents and business owners.”
The 911 call
Released 911 calls and dispatch notes from the Sept. 29 BioLab fire in Conyers, east of Atlanta, offered a closer look at the early hours of the chemical fire that forced 17,000 evacuations and weeks of shelter-in-place orders.
The dispatch operator can be heard trying to get the employees to the responding fire and rescue crew on the way on the scene.
Firefighters arrived to find near-zero visibility inside Plant 12. Notes from dispatch show responders heading inside the building, requiring self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBAs) to protect against the toxic fumes. The rescue workers had to rotate frequently due to fatigue and the conditions. Some first responders reported “facial skin irritation” while sitting in their patrol units.
Calls from dispatch to first responders were also obtained. During one call, dispatch and a first responder can be heard joking about the frequency of incidents at the chemical plant.
“One of the workers called and said there was chemical smoke in the building,” the dispatcher said. “Apparently, there is heavy smoke in the area, so they’re shutting everything down.”
“It’s always ‘FireLab,’ right?” the dispatcher joked.
Residents and health issues
The September fire at the facility in Conyers, where chemicals for swimming pools and spas are produced, created a plume that released chemicals into the air. It triggered thousands of evacuations, closed businesses, and forced Rockdale County schools to switch to virtual learning for weeks.
Cheryl Garcia said the aftereffects of the fire have taken a toll on her and her husband’s health. The couple lives just a few miles from the plant.
“My husband's primary care doctor wrote it very clearly," Garcia said. "And he put it on my medical record that it was due to chemical exposure.”'
Demanding accountability
As of 19 days after the fire, the county was just starting to get back to normal.
Rockdale County officials announced the emergency response to the BioLab incident had ended. The chemicals stored in that warehouse had been treated and removed, and the shelter-in-place advisories were no more. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirmed the facility is no longer emitting harmful fumes.
The remaining cleanup will be the responsibility of BioLab with oversight by the EPA and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
But for residents like Jane Sadler and Barbara Baker, questions remained about the response and what kinds of chemicals are housed in the BioLab warehouse.
“They should have known what kind of chemicals were in that plant,” Sadler said of federal and state agencies. “They inspect everything else. They inspect the schools. They inspect churches. Did they not go in there and inspect what's on the shelves?”
A reopening?
Six weeks after the BioLab plant fire, the company partially reopened its Conyers facility to fulfill customer orders.
“BioLab’s Distribution Center at Conyers was cleared by relevant authorities and regulators to reopen on Nov. 4 and resume fulfilling customer orders for finished products, which are used to clean pools and spas,” the company posted on its community resource website.
Manufacturing remained on hold at the facility. The statement went on to say that “any resumption of operations will only be undertaken with approval from authorities and regulators.”
Local residents remained concerned about the reopening.
Madelyne Reece, a Conyers resident, voiced frustration with BioLab’s reopening plans.
“[BioLab] thought once the plume was gone that everybody was just going to move on and we're not doing that,” Reece said. “We as a community are fed up and we're angry and we're not going to go quietly as they try to get this back up and running again.”
Members of Georgia’s congressional delegation called on KIK Consumer Products, the parent company of BioLab in Conyers, to release updates on its investigation into the chemical fire at its Conyers facility last September.
Halting production
In May 2025, the Committee to Protect Rockdale, formerly named the Shutdown Bio-Lab Coalition, released the following statement:
”Over 20 years after their first major disaster, the Committee to Protect Rockdale recognizes this closure is a good first step towards accountability, and we look forward to continuing that journey in the courthouse and the community. Right now, our attention is on supporting the Public Health Recovery Research project so that we can track health and wellness outcomes and make sure no one gets left behind in the coming years."
Hannah Loyd, a former Rockdale County resident who has since moved to Florida, sent a statement to GPB, stating her continued concerns.
"With the recent news about BioLab no longer producing I’m not exactly sure how to explain the emotion that I feel," she wrote. "They have been doing this since the fire, and probably long before it. It’s all in their wording and I almost think they want us to be quiet. Of course, people are going to be out of jobs and nobody wants that. The health risks and the longevity of someone’s life is way more important than a paycheck to me."
Seeking answers
After a Conyers resident reached out to an EPA whistleblower Scott Smith, he traveled to Georgia on Oct. 4, 2024 — five days after the fire at BioLab. He told GPB he traveled to Conyers seven times since that first trip.
Once in Conyers, he tested soot, ash, soil, and water near the BioLab site — samples he says showed troubling levels of dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), both potentially toxic byproducts of burning chemicals.
“The problem is the responsible parties and the EPA, they don't look for the full spectrum of chemicals,” Smith told GPB. “Then they declare everything safe."
Emails obtained by GPB from Rockdale County show that a third-party contractor, GHD, working in coordination with the EPA, conducted air monitoring in the weeks after the fire last September. The debris samples were analyzed for asbestos at Eurofins, the same lab Smith has used for his own testing.
“If you don’t tell them to look for benzene, you’re not going to find benzene,” he said.
In May, BioLab announced it would no longer manufacture pool and spa cleaning products at the Conyers facility, but would continue to use the facility for distribution. In that same announcement, the company said it had completed remediation efforts. On June 5, Georgia EPD responded in a statement to GPB saying negotiations over a formal cleanup plan are still ongoing.
Rockdale County’s federal lawsuit against BioLab that was filed in October is ongoing, along with class action cases brought by nearby residents and business owners.
Almost a year later, the community is still pushing for answers about what chemicals they were exposed to and what the long-term health effects may be.
“We've tried to get life back to normal,” Cheryl Garcia said. “But it really still isn't the same.”
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