For Vonnetta West the plume of smoke rising in the sky outside her home in the city of Conyers, Georgia, was a sign not just of immediate risk – but a danger that had been hiding in plain sight for years.
The plume was the result of an accident at the BioLab pool and spa chemical company in the city of nearly 20,000 residents about 25 miles east of Atlanta. Tens of thousands of people were impacted by an evacuation order for those immediately nearby or by the wider shelter-in-place order for those further away. The smell of chlorine drifted over much of the Atlanta area.
For West, 50, it was also a wake-up call, as BioLab was the site of an industrial accident for the third time in the last two decades. West, a consultant in nonviolent community-building who has lived in Conyers for 15 years, said the incident made her realize “there’s this facility that could be potentially very damaging in my backyard … It reminded me of the need to care about each other, people over profit.”
West said she could see the factory’s billowing smoke from the deck of her house when it was at its largest on Sunday afternoon. Although she lives outside the triangle-shaped evacuation zone in the immediate vicinity of the fire that authorities announced around that time, she took seriously the suggestion of staying put in her house.
Like many, she went on social media to advise her neighbors to stay put as smoke and an odor of chlorine spread from the city of Conyers to locations as far as dozens of miles away, following prevailing winds. But she also vented her frustrations.
“I’ll also be working to ensure that this facility DOES NOT REOPEN,” West posted on Twitter/X, referring to BioLab.
Separately, another Conyers resident named Shelly Thompson had gathered more than 1,500 signatures, most from the Atlanta metro area, on a Change.org petition Monday, to “Shut Down the Bio Lab in Conyers, Georgia for Health and Environmental Safety [sic]”.
One person who signed wrote: “Biolab should’ve been shut down years ago. They are dangerous and their pattern of negligence shows they have little regard for safety precautions.” Another wrote: “I am signing this petition to stop the environmental pollution that affects my neighborhood.”
The chemical fire had caused authorities to order an evacuation for part of the city and a “shelter-in-place” for Rockdale, the surrounding county. Reports of odors resembling chlorine and videos and photos showing a thick fog ricocheted across the metro area on Monday, from Atlanta to the west to Gwinnett county to the north-east.
Authorities also revised their orders as the incident unfolded. On Sunday night, the county told Piedmont Rockdale hospital to evacuate its patients. Two were moved to Newton, nearly 10 miles away, but within hours the county told the hospital to “shelter in place” as well, said a spokesperson, Sarah Teach. No county residents came to the hospital with health issues resulting from the fire, Teach added.
For West, the fire was added insult to injury.
Like many Georgians, she was still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, as a niece living less than two hours east in Augusta was probably going to be without water for several weeks. “I was just asking her: ‘Do we need to send you things?’” West said. “Everything is compounded. It’s very stressful and traumatic for people.”
Not everyone outside the evacuation zone stayed home on Monday.
Angela, who preferred using only her first name, has lived in Conyers, Georgia, her entire life; now “over 50”, she said she and her husband had “nowhere else to go” as smoke plumes spread above her city and beyond – so they went to work.
The two could see the orange and black smoke from BioLab several miles from their backyard on Sunday. The enormous billow had become smaller by Monday afternoon and turned mostly white. By that time, there was no fire at the BioLab plant, but chemicals interacting with water continued to produce smoke, according to the Rockdale county fire chief, Marian McDaniel.
Angela, who preferred using only her first name, said her brother had to evacuate his house because he lives within the triangular area named by the county. Conyers was mostly empty on Monday afternoon, but some people moved about in their cars, and she found a chicken restaurant open for lunch. Her workplace also received deliveries from FedEx and Amazon.
Among friends and family, she said: “There are a lot of frustrated people […] They feel like [Bio Labs] should not be allowed to stay in Rockdale county.”
Kik Consumer Products – BioLab’s parent company, located in Lawrenceville, Georgia – would not answer questions from the Guardian about the cause of fire or other issues, and instead repeated a statement posted on its website, asserting: “Our top priority is ensuring the community’s safety.”
Meanwhile, Georgia’s emergency management agency issued a statement indicating that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was “monitoring air quality for chlorine and related compounds. Chemical levels are unlikely to cause harm to most people.”
That did not reassure some residents.
“‘Unlikely’? What does that mean?” said West.
The people of Conyers had already experienced two similar incidents at BioLab – in 2004 and 2020.
Peter Stolmeier has lived in Conyers for 15 years. He was glad that by late afternoon on Monday the sky was clearing up near his house, but he too was concerned about BioLab’s track record.
“Just about everyone I’ve spoken to locally or not agrees that factories can be dangerous, but three times in living memory is just too many for anyone,” he wrote in an email. “It’s my hope lessons are learned this time for other facilities but that this one is never opened again.”
