CONYERS, Ga. — A chemical plume that's been gassing off in Conyers since a fire at a BioLab facility in Sunday continues to do so Friday, nearly a week later.
The fire was put out Sunday, but a reaction, triggered by sprinkler system water pouring onto pool shock chlorination products at the BioLab facility in Conyers, has continued to produce the plume.
The Georgia Department of Public Health told 11Alive that a "few hundred" people have complained of symptoms associated with the plume -- such as eye irritation and coughing -- but that the very large majority of these cases have been mild, with "very few" people experiencing severe outcomes or being admitted to a hospital.
NOTICE: A Georgia Poison Center hotline has been set up at 404-856-6252 for anyone wishing to report symptoms such as nose, throat or eye irritation or difficulty breathing.
Meanwhile, Rockdale County released a video showing the cleanup effort at the site, giving us a new window to how things look at the epicenter of the incident itself.
11Alive took a 2024 view from Google Maps above the facility and, below, you can compare that to visuals from the Rockdale video as well as visuals the 11Alive SkyTracker took above the site earlier this week:
Before and after visuals at BioLab plume site in Conyers
First, here's what it looked like in the Google satellite picture from earlier this year:
Take special note in the upper left of that water tower -- that's an important marker for recognizing the rest of the building in some of the "after" visuals (though, note that not all of the visuals do contain the water tower).
Now take a look at the Rockdale video released today, as well as our chopper video from Tuesday:
Now take a look at some screengrabs from both the Rockdale video and our chopper video. While it's important to note that crews are actively working to excavate and clear the building of debris and product, video from over the scene give a general scope of the aftermath.
