Since September 29, when the smell of chlorine first began to waft over metro Atlanta, Georgia residents’ lives have been upended by an enormous chemical fire. That day, a chemical plant containing millions of pounds of pool sanitizer burned to the ground in Conyers, Georgia. The blaze was extinguished in hours, but an enormous plume of orange and black smoke remained for days, so thick that drivers on Interstate 20 struggled to see past their windshield. Authorities ordered 17,000 people to evacuate and more than 90,000 to shelter in place for the first 48 hours. For those nearest the plant, the order lasted 19 days. The county’s public schools reopened on October 21 after weeks of virtual learning. Local doctors say they’re seeing children with sore throats, burning eyes, and unyielding headaches. Elaine Fontaine-Kpargarhai, a real-estate agent in Conyers, told me that her 6-year-old daughter had four asthma attacks in three days after not needing her inhaler for half a year.
The smoke has mostly cleared, but residents say they still smell and taste chlorine in the air. Officials in Rockdale County, where the fire broke out, have filed a federal lawsuit against BioLab, the company that owns the chemical plant, for negligence. “We are aware of the filing, and we are reviewing it thoroughly and will respond accordingly,” a BioLab spokesperson told me in a statement. “We are not in a position to comment further at this time, other than to say that our goal has been, and continues to be, to work constructively with the County.”
Georgia’s initial response to the fire was limited by Hurricane Helene, which smacked into Florida’s Gulf Coast before it killed more than 200 people, including 33 in Georgia; downed trees and power lines in Rockdale County; and kept state emergency crews busy with rescues. Helene may not have triggered the explosion—officials, who are still investigating the cause of the fire, have suggested that a malfunctioning sprinkler is to blame—but it certainly complicated the response. Such a collision of natural and chemical disasters may become only more common as the world warms, leaving people who live near facilities like the one in Conyers vulnerable to uncertain health effects and worse…