CONYERS, Ga. (AP) — More than twice the amount of swimming pool chemicals as planned were improperly stored at a Georgia plant, setting conditions for a fire in 2024 that sent a huge plume of orange and black smoke into the sky and forced residents to shelter in place, a federal agency report concluded. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board found that components of a sprinkler system inside the BioLab plant “had been experiencing significant corrosion and leaking” since 2019. That was shortly after the company began storing the chemicals at the plant, the agency said in its final report on the fire Tuesday.The huge sacks “would naturally off-gas chlorine fumes that combined with ambient humidity in the warehouse and condensed as hydrochloric acid droplets” on the metal sprinkler heads, the report said.During a sprinkler inspection in December 2023 at the plant in Conyers, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of downtown Atlanta, over 1,100 sprinkler heads were found to be corroded, it said.On the day of the fire, Sept. 29, 2024, a corroded sprinkler system component failed. Water came into contact with the chemicals and set off a decomposition reaction that generated heat, causing the release of smoke, toxic vapors and fire.
Overstored pool chemicals and corroded sprinklers led to Georgia chemical plant fire, report says
A report concludes that more than twice the planned amount of swimming pool chemicals were improperly stored at a Georgia plant, leading to a fire in 2024. The U.S.
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