BioLab fire caused by sprinkler leak was likely avoidable, says final report

The agency blamed BioLab for a wide range of safety issues, including not proactively maintaining or upgrading the sprinkler systems, storing large amounts of chlorine-based chemicals inside the warehouse and stacking heavy sacks of those chemicals to the point they became barriers to company employees and emergency responders trying to get to the source of the fire.

Credit: John Spink/AJC

Credit: John Spink/AJC

What’s more, KIK Consumer Products, which owns BioLab, could have taken steps to prevent the disaster after two previous fires at other company locations, the report said. Instead, the company never addressed the risks that come with storing large amounts of hazardous chemicals in a warehouse, according to the report.

The report said “… had Bio-Lab Conyers taken steps to proactively prevent sprinkler system leaks instead of allowing the system to run to failure, the incident likely would not have occurred.”

“The conditions and circumstances at the Bio-Lab Conyers warehouse were completely unacceptable,” CSB Chairperson Steve Owens said in a news release.

A BioLab spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “We will carefully consider its recommendations as part of our ongoing commitment to safety and continuous improvement. The health and safety of the communities where we operate is a top priority, and we worked collaboratively with first responders and relevant authorities to complete the emergency response in October 2024.”

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division had no comment on the report.

The September 2024 fire spurred evacuations of thousands, weekslong overnight shelter-in-place orders and road closures, including parts of I-20, and led many to seek medical attention. A chemical smell wafted across the metro area, with haze seen in Atlanta and elsewhere.

Besides the CSB investigation, a group that includes Morehouse School of Medicine is working on a long-term health study.

A recent Georgia Tech study also concluded the towering plume of smoke that hung in the air contained dangerous amount of bromide, which can irritate the skin and mucus membranes.

CSB’s report recommended KIK develop a corporate standard for handling and storing chemicals. It did not address long-term effects of the fire’s emissions.

For its part, BioLab said more than a year ago it would not restart operations. The pool chemical maker had operated in Rockdale County since 1973 and for a period was one of its largest employers.

Credit: John Spink/AJC

Credit: John Spink/AJC

Inspection reports in 2021 and 2022 turned up hundreds of deficiencies with BioLab’s sprinkler systems stemming from rusty or corroded components, according to CSB. The company had replaced some, but not all, of the brass-finish sprinkler heads with corrosion-resistant ones that are coated with wax.

At the same time, the company started to store more chemicals in an area of the warehouse called “Powder Storage,” and was more commonly known as “the bunker.”

According to inventory records, roughly 5,000 of these so-called “super sacks” that contained between 2,205 and 2,805 pounds of chemicals were in the warehouse at the time of the fire.

The company had double-stacked these sacks inside and outside the bunker, preventing anyone from getting to the area where water from the corroded pipe had dripped onto the chemicals.

While emergency workers extinguished the original fire at 8 a.m., the heat coming from the decomposing materials inside the super sacks set off sprinklers in other parts of the warehouse, leading to more chemicals to decompose.

The cyclical process continued, setting wooden pallets and packing materials on fire. Several walls began to collapse, and by evening, the building’s roof had caved in.

A note of disclosure

This coverage is supported by a partnership with Green South Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. You can learn more and support our climate reporting by donating at ajc.com/donate/climate.