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Nearly two weeks after a fire at the BioLab chemical plant in Conyers, smoke continues to rise from smoldering debris, smothering commerce downtown and piquing the ire of residents who want the facility to get out of town.
People living closest to the plant are still under a shelter-in-place order from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Rockdale County Public Schools students will continue remote classes until at least Oct. 18, and businesses have reduced their hours.
The BioLab plant, which stores chemicals used in pool and spa maintenance, caught fire on Sept. 29, forcing about 17,000 people to be evacuated. It wasn’t the first time an accident has affected this community, or others where it does business.
County and federal Environmental Protection Agency officials have said the concentrations of chlorine and hydrogen chloride in the air are not concerning for most people, but can cause irritation.
Residents say they are still experiencing symptoms from headaches to runny noses and wheezing.
Emergency room volume at Piedmont Rockdale, the local hospital, increased between 15% and 40% over the last 10 days, but was starting to return to normal on Friday, said spokesman John Manasso.
Patients presented with cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, itchy eyes, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness.
Some people have also found debris from the fire in their yards. EPA coordinator Rick Jardine said the debris is not contaminated. BioLab is providing a service to remove it.
Neither BioLab nor public officials have given a timeline for the cleanup.
“I would love to say that this will be over tomorrow, but we’re not at that point … We still have a crisis,” County Commission Chairman Oz Nesbitt said at a press conference on Monday.
Here’s a snapshot of how residents were coping on Friday.
Reduced hours due to smoke means lost customers at store
Chima Ekeke and Nnenna Ekeke, originally from Nigeria, have owned Robinson’s Super-ette for about seven years. They say they’ve had to enact reduced hours and seen a drop-off in customers since the BioLab fire.
They’ve been opening late and closing early because of the continuing nighttime shelter-in-place order, and they said their five usually busy lottery machines have gone unused because people don’t want to venture out to the store.
Nnenna Ekeke continues to feel the effects of the smoke, reporting a running nose and watery eyes. She’s wearing a face mask due to concern about the air quality.
Soon after the fire, a customer was having difficulty breathing and fainted in the store, the couple said.
Chima Ekeke estimates their losses at about $200 a day due to reduced business hours.
They are worried about the long-term impacts on their health, too.
BioLab fires force mom to evacuate twice in four years
Emily Payne, her 18-year-old son, and her dog, Hendrix, had to leave their home because of the BioLab fire. It was the second time she’s been forced to evacuate by fires at the plant. The last time was in 2020.
This time, she felt unwell when they left and started to feel better while they stayed in an AirBnb in Jonesboro, around 27 miles away.
Payne’s hoping she’ll be reimbursed for the cost she incurred.
When she got back to Conyers four days later, her symptoms flared up again. Nearly two weeks later, her eyes still burn, and she feels a wheezing in her chest in the mornings.
Payne wants BioLab out of the town where she has lived in for over two decades.
“I’ve been here every time that thing has had a problem,” Payne said.
Salon owner: BioLab ‘really dangerous for the people’
Julio Ramirez has owned Julio’s Beauty Salon for 16 years. He was doing make-up and hair for a client before her wedding photo shoot on the day of the BioLab fire when police and fire trucks started racing by.
He closed up shop because of the smoke.
“People were so afraid,” Ramirez said.
He got on the road, then realized Interstate 20 was closed.
Overhead loomed a giant multicolored cloud of smoke: black, orange yellow, red, and gray.
“I never saw that kind of colors in the smoke,” Ramirez said, comparing it to a BioLab fire in 2004 that forced him to evacuate. That time, the smoke was black.
Ramirez said he’s seen a reduction in business since the fire and doesn’t know how or whether he can seek restitution.
He’s worried about the long-term effect on his health, too. He’s had a headache since the fire — Tylenol helps but doesn’t eliminate the pain — and has sometimes felt nauseous. He plans to see a doctor next week.
He’d like to see BioLab relocate its facility away from a residential area.
“It’s really dangerous for the people,” Ramirez said.
Fire forced canceling of downtown shop grand opening
Nikki Hayes had grand plans for this fall. After she and her husband spent five months building out Sugaboo’Tique, a charming clothing and accessory shop, they were planning a late September or early October grand opening.
But the BioLab fire scuttled those plans, and she shut down her shop for a week.
Business owners have been making a concerted effort to get people to downtown Conyers, but on one wants to come to the site of a chemical fire, Hayes said.
The plant sits between the shop and her home.
“The smell was overwhelming,” Hayes said. “It was awful.”
It’s still bad at night, she said. “When that plume sets, it is like no … It is too strong,” Hayes said.
She’s been holding her breath when she drives past the smoldering plant and her husband bought respirators for them at Home Depot.
The couple is considering legal action about what she calls “gross negligence.”
“The system they had in place for if something should catch fire was not sufficient,” Hayes said.
Local officials like the fire marshal should have exercised greater oversight over the facility, she said. “I don’t understand how that got past so many people.”
Hayes said she follows city officials on social media and has also been getting information from television news. But she’s still confused about how the fire started and feels like she’s not getting the whole story.
“You don’t know who to believe,” Hayes said.
‘Overwhelmed’ mom, son get breathing treatments
Nakita Pointe is one local resident who has had to seek medical attention due to the fire. She visited a local urgent care facility on Oct. 4 after having difficulty breathing and chest pain.
She received a breathing treatment and steroids. Those helped but she’s still coughing.
Meanwhile, she’s worried about her two businesses, Chiquto’s Cantina and Grill and The Pointe Tavern. She feels “overwhelmed,” she said.
Pointe’s 15-year-old son, who plays soccer, has also started taking albuterol, a medicine that helps ease breathing. She’s not sure how long he will have to stay on the drug.
“We’re just playing it by ear,” Pointe said.
Rebecca Grapevine is a reporter covering public health in Atlanta for Healthbeat. Contact Rebecca at rgrapevine@healthbeat.org. KFF Health News reporter Andy Miller contributed to this report.
