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ATLANTA (AP) — Federal authorities have released an update on the investigation into fires at the BioLab chemical plant near Atlanta that produced a toxic chemical cloud and forced nearby residents to shelter in place.

The fires broke out Sept. 29 at the BioLab plant in Conyers, sending a huge plume of orange and black smoke into the sky. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board on Friday released an investigation update.

BioLab makes chemicals that kill algae and bacteria in water, primarily for swimming pools and hot tubs, the report says. The company is a subsidiary of Lawrenceville, Georgia-based KIK Consumer Products.

The company said in a statement that it has a “strong track record of working constructively” with regulators and will continue cooperating with federal authorities who are investigating.

“We remain firmly committed to understanding the causes of the incident and to making things right for impacted area residents and business owners,” the statement says.

A BioLab employee on fire watch at the Plant 12 storage warehouse reported hearing a “popping sound” as they left a breakroom to do a 5 a.m. check and immediately saw that a product reactive to water was wet, the report says. The employee called the only other BioLab employee on site.

Though no flames were initially observed, the employee on fire watch tried unsuccessfully to isolate the product and called 911 at about 5:10 a.m. as “large toxic vapor plumes” formed inside the building.

By 6:30 a.m., flames could be seen through the roof of the area where employees first noticed the chemical reaction. An initial shelter-in-place order was issued around 7:40 a.m., and the fire was put out by Rockdale County firefighters about 30 minutes later.

A second fire broke out around noon, producing “thick black smoke, followed by multicolor plumes,” the report says. 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.

Parts of the building where the initial reaction happened collapsed during the fire and the building was destroyed. The Plant 12 building covered an area larger than five football fields and remained an “active emergency response scene” for nearly four weeks, the report says.

The Plant 12 warehouse was a bulk storage area separated from the main warehouse by a firewall and fire shutters, the report says. BioLab told federal investigators they had established a permanent fire watch two or three months before the event “after detecting strong odors from oxidizers in two storage buildings,” including Plant 12.

Interstate 20, which runs parallel to the facility, was shut down shortly after the building collapsed just before 1 p.m. and was closed until about 7 a.m. the next day. Smaller roads near the facility remained closed and the Rockdale County Emergency Management Agency issued shelter-in-place warnings within a two-mile radius that lasted for several weeks. The final order expired Oct. 17.

Smoke drifted toward Atlanta, causing a smog or haze that smelled of chlorine in parts of the city and surrounding area.

More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed in connection with the fire.

The BioLab chemical blaze sent chlorine into the air, causing about 17,000 people to evacuate and about 90,000 to shelter in place.

Patch Staff

|Updated Mon, Nov 25, 2024 at 4:33 pm ET

CONYERS, GA — New details have been released regarding the massive blaze and subsequent "toxic smoke" that forced about 17,000 people surrounding the Conyers community to evacuate and about 90,000 people in metro Atlanta to shelter in place.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board on Friday released its preliminary findings on the chemical reaction and toxic gas release at the BioLab chemical plant on Sept. 29. Patch has obtained a copy of the eight-page report.

The CSB said the fire and smoke were a reaction to heat-generated materials that were being stored in a warehouse. The materials deteriorated, released toxic vapors and erupted fires.

Investigators identified the primary materials as trichloroisocyanuric acid and sodium dichloroisocyanurate, which are both used to disinfect swimming pools.

The fire sparked around 5:30 a.m. before reigniting around noon, setting free "harmful irritant chlorine" into the air and causing a stir in Rockdale County and neighboring counties.

Find out what's happening in Atlantawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

RELATED: Chlorine-Filled Air Triggers Local Emergency, Impacts 3rd GA County

A BioLab staffer was working on fire watch around 5 a.m. in the Plant 12 storage warehouse, a non-combustible structure. The employee heard a popping sound, "which they attributed to (a) wet product," the CSB said. At the time, flames were not visible.

Workers tried to contain the product but were unsuccessful, the CSB said. About 10 minutes later, large and hazardous toxic plumes prompted workers to call 911, the CSB said.

By 6:30 a.m., visible flames ballooned above the area of the chemical reaction and were extinguished in less than two hours.

Then, around 12:30 p.m., first responders began evacuations, and a second larger fire ignited at the plant and was extinguished hours later by 4 p.m., the CSB said.

Chlorine and other hazardous substances filled the smoke plumes and "caused significant offsite impacts," the CSB said.

The Environmental Protection Agency advised elevated chlorine and hydrogen chloride levels were in the air from Sept. 30-Oct. 2, specifically at nighttime, the CSB said.

Not only were thousands of people ordered to evacuate, but the enormous incident prompted Interstate 20 near BioLab to close for about 18 hours and smaller roads to close for longer periods.

Shelter-in-place orders were in place for several weeks, and the warehouse was dismantled, the CSB said.

“This incident and the substantial potential risk that it posed to the surrounding community was completely unacceptable," CSB Chairperson Steve Owens said in a news release. "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.”

The CSB said it will look further into the incident.

BioLab is a manufacturer of chlorinates that kill algae and bacteria in a vast amount of water, particularly in swimming pools and hot tubs, and converts raw materials and packages of finished recreational water-care products for sale, the CSB said.

Its facility in Conyers has been operating since 1973 and has gone through multiple owners, the CSB said.

Patch has reached out to BioLab for comment.

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For the past decade in Union, Lumpkin, Hall, White, Habersham, and Rabun counties, thyroid cancer cases have been about double or more the national average.

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HALL COUNTY, Ga. — A mom of three, Victoria Hurtado, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2022 when she was just 30 years old. She went to college in Dahlonega and lived for several years in Hall County.

“I felt denial like this can't be real," she said. "I'm 30; there's no way I have thyroid cancer. Then the acceptance and the grief, then the anger and sadness.”

Even after major surgery, Hurtado's cancer spread. Her doctors were unable to provide all the answers she so desperately wanted.

"I asked my doctor, what causes this?" she recalled. "He said, 'We really have no idea.'”

11Alive News Investigates spoke to dozens of residents in Northeast Georgia. Women, men, and even children, are all facing the same diagnosis and questions.

Credit: WXIA

“There's so many cases popping up here," Hurtado said. "Whatever it is that is causing this is a very strong factor."

According to CDC data, high thyroid cancer rates began to emerge in Northeast Georgia around 2006. Incidence rates have been unusually high in the area ever since, especially in Union, Lumpkin, Hall, White, Habersham, and Rabun counties.

The number of thyroid cancer cases in those counties has been about double or more the national average over the past decade.

Credit: WXIA

When 11Alive News Investigates brought that data to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, it responded quickly.

Endocrine surgeon Dr. Nikita Machado said the data validated recent concerns she and her colleagues in the area have shared.

“We're noticing that there's a lot of these patients with thyroid cancer," she said. "Our incidence of young patients with thyroid cancer is surprisingly higher than it should be. It's definitely above the national average."

Machado said the often overlooked symptoms include a lump in the neck, voice changes, trouble swallowing, fatigue, and sudden weight fluctuation.

"The symptoms are a little bit vague, which means that you don't always find it unless it's a sizable mass, voice changes and difficulty swallowing," she said. "But by that point, the cancers can get fairly large."

Machado said there's not yet enough research to definitively prove what causes thyroid cancer.

"It's oftentimes I think an interplay of different things," she said. "Environmental factors can sometimes play a part; ionizing radiation is one of the big ones. There is talk about certain chemical substances, potentially, you know, exposure to some hard metals like arsenic and things like that, that could potentially play a role."

Researchers now hope to learn whether any of those factors might be contributing to the unusually high number of cases in Northeast Georgia.

The same data was brought to Dr. Neal Lin, an expert in public health and epidemiology and professor at the University of North Georgia (UNG). He immediately noted it was cause for concern.

“Looking at the incidence rates of thyroid cancer in the Northeast counties of Georgia, we're seeing that they are not just high, but certainly exceptionally high," Lin said. "This is something that epidemiologists will look at and say, the numbers are telling me something."

The big question, he said, is what might be causing it.

Credit: WXIA

"It may be something that is environmental," Lin explained. "It may be something related to the infrastructure here.”

Lin said he's tapped a team of student researchers at UNG to start investigating potential causes. He acknowledged that without widespread support from the state and other contributors, it may be a long road.

"They need to put in the time investigating to figure this out," Lin said. "The hurdle is to get the funding."

Both Lin and Machado said finding answers will largely depend on public health officials getting involved.

"I think it's important to parse out, is there something here that's preventable?" Machado said. "What we need is a partner in the community, and that usually boils down to the Department of Public Health and then epidemiologists.”

11Alive News Investigates provided the findings to the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), which reviewed the data.

A spokesperson confirmed a nurse navigator from Northeast Georgia brought the high rate of thyroid cancer in one of the six counties identified to DPH’s attention last year. The spokesperson did not clarify which county that was.

They noted that because the geographical region identified was so large, it would not be considered a cancer "cluster."

The spokesperson also stated that DPH is not allocating any special resources to investigate but will continue "to monitor overall cancer rates as part of the cancer registry."

Credit: Georgia DPH

Dr. Machado said she hopes spreading the word about thyroid cancer risks in Northeast Georgia will help educate residents and encourage them to monitor their health for any symptoms.

“You're doing really important work here," she said. "I think raising awareness about thyroid cancer and sort of what to expect and how to look for it is going to help us to catch these earlier."

Although there is no screening test for thyroid cancer, an awareness of the common symptoms may help lead to early intervention.

"It's your physicians making sure that they talk about it at your yearly visit," Machado said. "It's the media making people aware that this exists in our community and exists at a higher rate than it probably should. And then it's the Department of Public Health setting up initiatives and talking with epidemiologists, trying to figure out what the reasons are for this."

Hurtado, who is preparing to undergo radiation therapy to target her cancer, said she hopes the state makes resources available to investigate.

"It's so important to look into this so that people can continue to live in this beautiful area and feel safe about it," she said.

If you have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and live in Union, Lumpkin, Hall, White, Habersham, or Rabun counties and are willing to share more with researchers and 11Alive News Investigates, please email Savannah Levins at slevins@11alive.com.

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Posted on November 23, 2024

Here’s an up-to-date list of all NFL Players from Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta, GA.

The list includes only those players who have played in an NFL game.

See where it ranks among other schools in the state here.

NFL Players from Frederick Douglass HS

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com