Massive chemical fire forces evacuations in Rockdale
By MIKE MORRIS (
[email protected])
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/25/04
Firefighters from three counties Tuesday were battling a massive blaze at a chemical company near Conyers.
Authorities evacuated a one-mile radius around the BioLab Inc. facility on Old Covington Highway near West Avenue and I-20. A mandatory evacuation of downtown Conyers was ordered just before 10 a.m.
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At least nine people were treated for respiratory problems, area hospitals reported. Rockdale Medical Center, about a mile from the explosion site, was sending new patients to other hospitals.
"You could feel the burning. You started feeling like you wanted to cough or throw up," Ruby Knauers, a Conyers resident who was evacuated from her home by police, told the Associated Press.
The fire broke out before 4:30 a.m.
A huge explosion inside the building sent black smoke skyward just before 7 a.m. and a few minutes later, officials shut down I-20 in both directions.
Eastbound traffic was being diverted off the interstate at Turner Hill Road, with westbound traffic being routed off at Sigman Road. The interstate was reopened in both directions at about 7:30 a.m., but was again shut down about three hours later.
DeKalb police Sgt. Pat White said eastbound traffic was being taken off the interstate at Panola Road just before 11 a.m. Westbound traffic was being divertd at Exit 98, Ga. Hwy. 11.
Light winds were blowing the giant plume of gray and black smoke eastward parallel to I-20. By 8:30 a.m., the plume could be seen at Lake Oconee some 45 miles away and was visible from both downtown Atlanta and Lawrenceville.
The Federal Aviation Administration was in the process of restricting airspace surrounding the fire site at 11 a.m., spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. The airspace restriction would be in place for three nautical miles around and 3,500 feet above the fire, she said.
The fire and smoke plume was having no effect on air traffic in and out of Hartsfield-Jackson International Aiport, Bergen said.
Downtown Conyers was nearly deserted at 10 a.m. as smoke settled down into the Olde Town historic district, turning the sky ashen gray. To the east the smoke got thicker and nearer to the ground.
A police officer parked at the corner of Main and Pine Log roads stepped out of his car holding a pale green medical mask over his face as he talked to a lost motorist. She rolled down her window and covered her face with her hand as she spoke.
Some drivers were out, but businesses and the courthouse were all closed. Just two people walked down the sidewalks.
Nelson James of Cumming was leaving his office on Main Street after his boss called to say there were mandatory evacuations and he should get out of town.
"This is wild and crazy," he said, of the air's smoky chlorine smell. Nelson works for a company that throws picnics and other events for corporations; it once organized an event for Biolab.
"Every time you go by that place, you wonder if that's going to happen," he said. "Just a thought at the back of your mind is, 'If that place ever caught on fire, what would happen?'"
Buzz Weiss, a spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, said at 10 a.m. that officials planned to let the fire burn itself out. Weiss added that the fire could burn for another 12 hours.
BioLab sells purification chemicals for use in swimming pools, and Shupe said chlorine was burning.
The company ships swimming pool chemicals from its 400,000-square-foot Conyers facility. This is the busiest time of the year for the company as it gears up for this weekend's Memorial Day holiday, the traditional opening of summer pool season.
A statement released by BioLab said "raw materials and finished goods" were stored in the warehouse.
"The smoke from the fire may contain consumed chlorine, which is an irritant and the reason for the request for the public to stay out of the path of the smoke," the statement read.
"The fire has been contained to the building of origin, and we're working hard to keep it that way," deputy Rockdale fire chief Mike Lee said at 9 a.m.
Lee said the smoke plume extends a half-mile high from the point of origin in a storage building at BioLab. He said part of the roof had collapsed.
According to Lee, the fire did not spread to other buildings in the Bio-Lab complex.
Lee did not know of any injuries among employees or to any firefighters.
Monty Eckels, vice president of manufacturing for BioLab, which has been in Rockdale for 31 years, said, "I want to apologize profusely for the disruption caused to the community."
Eckels said smoke smoke was noticed around 4 a.m. in one of the three distribution buildings.
A company emergency response team immediately evacuated the building, he said.
The cause of the fire had not been determined, Eckels said.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Carl Terry said that emergency response experts with the agency were setting up toxic air monitors around the plant site to determine what chemicals -- and in what concentrations -- may be coming from the fire.
Kevin Chambers, spokesman for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, said that more than 250,000 pounds of a chlorine-based compound called calcium hypochlorite is stored at the plant.
Calcium hypochlorite is "an extremely dangerous product that either through criminal acts, misuse or unfortunate combinations of circumstances can endanger both emergency responders and the general public with its potential for creating violent, intense fires and explosions," says the National Association of State Fire Marshals.
The chemical is used to bind chlorine to make it a solid and make it easier to ship and store. Chlorine normally is a gas.
"It's the solid that's burning and giving off chlorine gas," Chambers said.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, acute exposure to low levels of chlorine results in eye, nose, and throat irritation, sneezing, excessive salivation, general excitement and restlessness.
Higher concentrations causes difficulty in breathing, violent coughing, nausea, vomiting, cyanosis, dizziness, headache, choking, laryngeal edema, acute tracheobronchitis, chemical pneumonia.
Chambers said that EPD officials also are checking on a nearby pond to determine if contaminated runoff from the plant fire is getting into the pond.
He said EPA officials are working with EPA to set up the air monitors on the ground. An airplane equipped with air monitors may be sent up later, he said.
Chambers said that the plume this morning was "like a ball of yarn" and most of the toxic smoke was going high into the air. But as the day warms up, he said, the smoke could spread out and get closer to the ground.
As long as the smoke is high in the air, the ground monitors may not register high concentrations.
The weather forecast for Tuesday called for winds to continue to blow from west to east at around 10 mph., with afternoon temperatures climbing well into the 80s.
At 6 a.m., sheriff's deputies were driving through the area using loudpspeakers to advise residents who had not already left to stay inside their homes, shut their windows and turn off air conditioners.
"We have a one-mile radius blocked off until we can determine exactly what we're dealing with," Shupe said.
Authorities have shut down and blocked access to part of downtown Conyers due to the cloud from the chemical fire, Shupe said.
"The cloud has settled and people have seen particles falling from the cloud," Shupe said. "I'm sure they're from the fire, but we don't know exactly what they are."
Areas evacuated or closed include Main Street and West Avenue, as well as Mill Street in Conyers. "That entire area has been closed to access," Shupe said.
Other areas evacuated included Old Town Conyers and the Milstead area. School buses were being used to evacuate residents.
Evacuation centers were set up at Heritage High School on Granade Road and at J.H. House Elementary School on Loganville Highway.
The Rockdale County courthouse complex was closed for the day. County schools have already closed for the summer. Schools in neighboring Newton County to the east are still in session, however, and a spokesman there said all outdoor activities had been canceled.
Deborah Armstrong, a spokeswoman for Rockdale Hospital, said no one had been treated at the hospital for breathing difficulties or any other problems. She said the hospital is about five miles from the fire, and had not been evacuated.
Surface streets surrounding the facility, including West Avenue headed into downtown Conyers, were also shut down.
Sherry and Charles McDaniel run the M&M Bait and Produce behind a Chevron station at the corner of Sigman and Irwin Bridge roads, both of which were closed off going to the plant. The normally slow-paced intersection became a web of activity as confused commuters tried to figure out other ways to I-20, which is a little more than a mile to the south. Many stopped at the produce stand to ask directions.
"About the time you tell them to go one way, people come back and say, 'Well, they turned me away there,'" Sherry McDaniel said.
Leaning over baskets of tomatoes and grapefruit, the McDaniels stared south at the billowy white smoke about a mile away. In the air was the faintest smell of chlorine, about as strong as the scent from a swimming pool.
The plume seemed to expand and contract with the wind and at times appeared to turn black, the couple said.
DeKalb County firefighters were sent to the scene to assist Rockdale crews in battling the blaze, DeKalb dispatchers said. Newton County fire crews were also assisting.
BioLab is owned by Great Lakes Chemical Corp., based in Indianapolis, Ind.
According to its Web site, Great Lakes is the world's leading producer of specialty chemicals for applications such as water treatment, specialty household cleaners, flame retardants, polymer stabilizers, fire suppression and performance chemicals.
The company produces more than 8,500 products that are marketed in more than 90 countries.
In 2002 Great Lakes had revenues of $1.4 billion and more than 4,600 employees.
The EPA in 1998 fined BioLab $319,000 for alleged violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). It was the largest penalty ever imposed under FIFRA by the EPA's regional office in Atlanta.
The EPA cited BioLab for not properly registering two of its swimming pool products. The agency said that the products contained ingredients that could also be classified as pesticides.
Staff writer Bill Montgomery, Charles Seabrook and Duane Stanford contributed to this article.