After nearly two months since a fire erupted at a BioLab chemical plant near Atlanta that produced a toxic chemical cloud, federal investigators revealed new details of their investigation on Friday that shed light on the "consequences" of the blaze.
The fire, which ignited on September 29 at the BioLab facility, a division of KIK Consumer Products specializing in swimming pool and spa water care products, located in Conyers, Georgia, has led to an investigation into the fire's cause and the response.
Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel previously told reporters that the blaze had been triggered when water from the building's sprinkler system mixed with a water-reactive chemical, and wiring sparked the fire.
According to an updated investigation report on Friday from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), the incident began in the early hours of the morning when a BioLab employee on fire watch at the Plant 12 storage warehouse heard a mysterious "popping sound."
The source was a chemical product reactive to water that had become wet. Though the employee quickly alerted their colleague and attempted to contain the reaction, the situation escalated.
By 5:10 a.m., toxic vapor clouds were billowing inside the warehouse. Flames broke through the roof just over an hour later, prompting an initial shelter-in-place order. The Rockdale County Fire Department extinguished the blaze by 8:10 a.m. However, at noon, a second fire started, sending multicolored plumes of smoke into the sky as portions of the Plant 12 building collapsed and had to be removed during the emergency response efforts.
According to the report's "Post Fire Activities and Consequences" section, the extended period of toxic vapor plume from the site happened "because residual TCCA product remained onsite, including beneath the collapsed walls and structure debris, requiring the use of heavy equipment to access and remove the material for treatment."
The report detailed that the toxic vapor plume caused significant disruption, including the temporary closure of Interstate 20 and various local roads, an ordered evacuation and other orders for residents to shelter in place.
Evacuations of the surrounding area began around 12:30 p.m., and the county fire chief said the fire was extinguished by 4 p.m.
Atlanta's fire department then began conducting tests for chemicals including chlorine, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon monoxide, while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitored for chlorine and related compounds.
"This incident and the substantial potential risk that it posed to the surrounding community was completely unacceptable. Reactive chemical incidents can have severe environmental and public safety impacts due to the combination of fire, toxic gas emissions, and hazardous materials involved, and Bio-Lab and any other facility that has reactive chemicals onsite must manage those materials safely," CSB chairman Steve Owens said, per Atlanta News First.
In response to the report, in a statement emailed to Newsweek on Sunday afternoon, BioLab said it will continue to cooperate with the CSB's investigation, which remains ongoing, and maintains the company is committed to the health and safety of the community.
"BioLab has a strong track record of working constructively with regulatory agencies and will continue to cooperate with the CSB's investigation, which still remains ongoing," a BioLab spokesperson said in the statement.
They continued: "Our top priority is and has always been the health and safety of the communities within which we operate, and we worked collaboratively with first responders and local, state, and federal authorities to successfully remediate the situation at our Conyers warehouse storing chemicals that treat swimming pools and spas. We remain firmly committed to understanding the causes of the incident and to making things right for impacted area residents and business owners."
As the investigation continues, BioLab faces mounting legal challenges from affected residents and businesses as the community continues grappling with the aftermath of an environmental disaster.
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