A federal agency report concluded that a fire at a Georgia chemical plant in 2024 was caused by the improper storage of swimming pool chemicals and a corroded sprinkler system. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board found that the BioLab plant in Conyers, Georgia, had stored more than twice the amount of pool chemicals as planned, leading to a huge plume of orange and black smoke that forced residents to shelter in place.

Report Findings

The report stated that the components of the sprinkler system had been experiencing significant corrosion and leaking since 2019, shortly after the company began storing the chemicals at the plant. The huge sacks of chemicals would naturally release chlorine fumes that combined with ambient humidity in the warehouse and condensed as hydrochloric acid droplets on the metal sprinkler heads.

During a sprinkler inspection in December 2023, over 1,100 sprinkler heads were found to be corroded. On the day of the fire, a corroded sprinkler system component failed, causing water to come into contact with the chemicals and setting off a decomposition reaction that generated heat, leading to the release of smoke, toxic vapors, and fire.

The board chairperson, Steve Owens, stated that the conditions and circumstances at the Bio-Lab Conyers warehouse were completely unacceptable, with about 14 million pounds of reactive chemicals stored without proper safeguards. The company has decided not to rebuild the plant and was cited by the U.S. Department of Labor for six violations, including four serious ones, and more than $60,000 in proposed penalties.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.