Georgia Residents Evacuated, Told to Shelter in Place After Chemical Lab Catches Fire

Georgia residents were told to evacuate or shelter in place after a chemical lab outside of Atlanta, Georgia, caught fire.

In a post on Facebook, the Rockdale County Government wrote that a fire had “broken out” at the Bio Lab facility in Conyers, Georgia, and warned residents that evacuations were taking place for several locations, listing evacuation sites.

Conyers is roughly under a 30-mile drive from Atlanta.

“Please remain indoors and keep windows closed to minimize exposure,” the Rockdale County Government added in the post.

Around 1:00 p.m. the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office issued an update on Facebook that there had been a fire at the chemical plant earlier in the morning, adding that the fire had “reignited.”

“At first, it was on fire earlier this morning, somewhere between four and four-thirty,” Rockdale County Sheriff Eric Levett said in a video. “The fire was contained, however, we were still dealing with the smoke. Now, the fire has reignited, and we are doing a hard evacuation.”

Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel explained during a press conference that the fire began “after a sprinkler head malfunctioned and mixed with a water-reactive chemical and wiring at the plant,” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Video footage posted on social media showed smoke clouds from the chemical plant blowing into the sky.

In one video posted to X, smoke from the chemical plant could reportedly be seen from someone’s window on a plane traveling from Washington, DC, to Atlanta.

The fire is reportedly the “third such incident” the chemical plant has experienced within seven years, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.