ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. — Nearly two years after the BioLab fire, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has released its final investigation report into the Rockdale County plant on Tuesday.
The report found the conditions were “completely unacceptable” and BioLab was storing nearly twice the amount of reactive chemicals it initially reported to county officials.
The September 2024 fire at BioLab triggered a chemical reaction involving stored pool chemicals at the facility. The fire and the reaction spewed a plume of smoke into the air for days, prompting the evacuation of 17,000 people.
“There were nearly 14 million pounds of reactive chemicals stored in the warehouse without proper safeguards in place. These hazardous chemicals were packaged in roughly 5,000 giant sacks, each weighing more than a ton, and some of them were stacked in such a way in the warehouse that responders were not able to keep the initial situation from developing into a catastrophic fire and massive plume of toxic smoke that put thousands of people potentially at risk,” CSB Chairperson Steve Owens said.
This is a developing story. We’re going through the final safety report for Channel 2 Action News at 6:00 p.m.
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