Nearly 4,000 plaintiffs pursue BioLab injury claims two years after fire

Caption

An aerial view of the massive chemical fire at the BioLab facility in Conyers, Ga., is seen Sept. 29, 2024.

Credit: Deandre Kimpson

Nearly 4,000 people are named as plaintiffs in personal-injury lawsuits alleging they were harmed by the 2024 BioLab fire in Conyers and the resulting toxic plume, according to a GPB review of state court records.

GPB identified 3,827 plaintiffs in Georgia State and Superior Court cases filed through Oct. 1. Attorney Roger Orlando’s office told GPB it represents 2,482 individual plaintiffs in BioLab-related cases — accounting for the majority of the plaintiffs identified in GPB’s review. The count does not include claims filed in magistrate court, which handles civil cases seeking $15,000 or less. Most of the plaintiffs are Rockdale County residents, though people living outside the county have also filed claims. 

Orlando said 54 law firms referred BioLab clients to him, and his office filed 27 lawsuits ahead of the two-year deadline — after attorneys in the federal class action litigation were unable to reach an agreement with the defendants to pause the statute of limitations for personal injury claims.

The lawsuits name Bio-Lab and parent company KIK Consumer Products, as well as several affiliated KIK companies as defendants. Many of the newer filings also name Kronos Acquisition Holdings, a holding company within KIK’s corporate structure, and Centerbridge Partners, the private-equity firm that acquired KIK in 2015. 

Most of the lawsuits seek compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering and other losses plaintiffs attribute to the fire. Many also seek punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. 

GPB’s review also found at least five deaths are now the subject of wrongful-death claims alleging exposure to chemicals from the fire caused or contributed to a person’s death.

Those claims seek damages for the full value of the lives of those who died, with some lawsuits also seeking compensation for medical, funeral and other expenses. 

Two separate lawsuits filed Sept. 21 in Rockdale County Superior Court were brought by Milissa Hunter as an heir of James Hunter and Debra Alexander. One alleges James Hunter developed pneumonia after exposure to the plume and later died in hospice on Dec. 8, 2024. The other alleges Debra Alexander developed double pneumonia after exposure to the plume and died from multiorgan dysfunction syndrome and septic shock on Nov. 22, 2024.

That complaint alleges exposure to hazardous substances from the BioLab facility “caused, accelerated, aggravated or materially contributed to” both deaths. 

Two additional wrongful-death claims are included in a multi-plaintiff lawsuit led by the Keenan Law Firm in DeKalb County State Court. Sheila Buckner is pursuing a claim over the death of her father, Sampson Buckner and Donald Dunlap is pursuing one over the death of his mother, Elizabeth Rivers.

Buckner, 88, was a Conyers resident who died April 18, 2025. Rivers, 79, was living in Covington when she died the same day, according to their obituaries. 

That complaint alleges exposure to hazardous substances from the BioLab facility “caused, accelerated, aggravated or materially contributed to” both deaths.

GPB previously reported on a wrongful-death lawsuit filed earlier this year by the widow of Rockdale County Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor Kenny Johnson. Johnson died nine days after the fire.

Attorney Mindy Bish with the Keenan Law Firm is handling the case involving the Buckner and Rivers wrongful-death claims. Bish is also funding environmental testing in Conyers by environmental advocate Scott Smith.

Bish said the testing is intended, in part, to help establish what residents may have been exposed to.

“By having independent testing, we can counter that in order for our experts to be prepared,” Bish told GPB in December last year. “It lays the groundwork so that our experts will have the basis that they need to get this case to a jury.” 

Atlanta trial lawyer Darren Penn, who is handling separate individual BioLab cases, said most of the clients he has seen reported respiratory illnesses and significant symptoms on the day of the fire or in the days afterward that led them to seek medical treatment. 

But Penn said there is still no way to know what longer-term health effects, if any, could emerge.

“As far as the long-term effects, we just aren’t there yet,” Penn told GPB. “We don’t know. We’re only two years into this thing, so we have no idea what kind of chronic effects, if any, you're gonna see in this population.”

Many of the cases were filed in the days leading up to Sept. 29, two years after the fire and a key statute-of-limitations deadline for many personal-injury claims. 

“I think you're going to see much higher numbers because it was such a specific event,” Penn said.

The Sept. 29, 2024, fire at BioLab’s Conyers facility sent a toxic chemical plume across the region, prompting the evacuation of 17,000 people, closing portions of Interstate 20 and leading to overnight shelter-in-place orders in the weeks that followed.

In its final report issued in July, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board found the fire began after a corroded sprinkler component failed, allowing water to come into contact with stored oxidizing chemicals and trigger a decomposition reaction. 

GPB has reached out to BioLab, KIK Consumer Products, Kronos Worldwide and Centerbridge Partners for comment. 

For more on the 2024 BioLab fire and GPB’s investigation, listen to Manufacturing Danger: The BioLab Story wherever you get your podcasts. Season 3 began Sept. 29.