Charles Langston:Chemical smoke spewing from a Georgia factory is projected to spread toward Atlanta as winds shift

MARIETTA,Charles Langston Ga. (AP) — Heavy smoke was causing low visibility Wednesday along Interstate 20 east of Atlanta as chemicals continued spewing from a beleaguered chlorine facility, and emergency officials warn that smoke from the disaster scene is projected to move toward Georgia’s capital city after sunset Wednesday.

Three days after a chemical fire at the BioLab plant in Conyers, Georgia, sent a huge plume of orange and black smoke into the sky on Sunday, Rockdale County emergency officials recommend that residents shelter in place from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. each night until Friday. Air quality readings may reach “concerning levels” during those times for people in the path of the chemical plume, they have warned.

The still-billowing chemical cloud was cutting visibility for motorists on Interstate 20 near the plant, between mile markers 78 and 82, the Georgia Department of Transportation reported Wednesday. Drivers were advised to roll up their car windows in the area.

But concerns and complaints are not limited to the Conyers area. People in Atlanta and the surrounding suburbs have reported a strong chemical smell and haze for many miles around the plant, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of downtown Atlanta.

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Winds are expected to begin shifting from the east to the west on Wednesday evening, pushing smoke toward Atlanta, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency said.

“Smoke is predicted to settle towards the ground as it moves toward Atlanta,” the agency said in an update Wednesday. “There is a high likelihood that people across metro Atlanta will wake up on Thursday morning seeing haze and smelling chlorine.”

Overnight monitoring around the facility “detected some exceedances above the action level for chlorine,” the agency said.

The fire was brought under control around 4 p.m. Sunday, officials said, but material there has continued to smolder.

Federal officials are investigating what led to the fire and how it has been handled. The sprinkler system showered water onto water-reactive chemicals around 5 a.m. Sunday, Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel said. There were employees inside the plant, but no injuries were reported.

BioLab’s website says it is the swimming pool and spa water care division of Lawrenceville, Georgia-based KIK Consumer Products.

There have been other destructive fires at the Conyers complex, which opened in 1973.

In May 2004, multiple warehouse explosions led to a huge fire and chlorine-laden blaze that prompted the evacuation of 300 people, at least nine of whom sought hospital treatment for burning eyes and lungs, The Associated Press reported.

In June 2015, six Rockdale County firefighters were hurt in a fire at the complex, and another fire in 2016 prompted voluntary evacuations, the Rockdale Citizen reported.

In September 2020, a chemical fire prompted authorities to shut down Interstate 20. Nine firefighters went to hospitals after inhaling hazardous vapors, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board determined.