ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. — Two Rockdale County deputies and one resident are suing Biolab and parent company KIK LLC.
The suit alleges the companies’ negligence led to them and their homes being exposed to a chemical plume that caused severe lung injuries back in September 2024 when the Conyers plant caught fire.
The plantiffs are asking for a trial by jury, and are seeking compensation and punitive damages.
The first plaintiff, Cachia Rose, lives near the facility that caught fire, releasing a toxic plume.
The suit says after she inhaled the plume, she “developed severe pulmonary injuries, including severe obstructive lung disease and approximately 50 percent loss of baseline lung function.”
The two deputies, Edwin Gonzalez and Aaron Tate, were required to work near the plume as part of their duties “without adequate warning, chemical identity information, or personal protective equipment.”
Gonzalez “developed severe obstructive pulmonary disease and lost approximately 40 percent of his total lung capacity,” the lawsuit says.
Tate was posted 75 yards from the facility for 16 days. In addition, “his home, approximately 4.5 miles from the facility, was coated in chemical residue. He inhaled the plume, suffered severe pulmonary injury, and continues to require medical care,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges the BioLab chemical plant was not appropriate to be located where it was “because millions of pounds of water-reactive oxidizers were stored near residential, commercial, public, and emergency-response areas in a warehouse with known sprinkler-system corrosion, known water-intrusion risk, inadequate compartmentalization, inadequate emergency planning, and a history of prior water-reactive chemical incidents.”
Among the allegations, the lawsuit also claims the community wasn’t properly told of the risks of the plume and thus were unable to take proper precautions.
“Had Defendants immediately and accurately notified emergency planning authorities as required by law, Tate would have been provided the chemical identity information and personal protective equipment necessary to work safely or would not have been posted within approximately seventy-five yards of Plant 12 without it,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit is just the latest against BioLab.
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