Over 90,000 Georgia residents taking shelter after chemical fire
Sep 30, 2024, 7:37 PM
In this image taken from video from WSB-TV, smoke fills the air from a chemical fire at the nearby BioLab plant, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Conyers, Georgia, near Atlanta. (WSB-TV via AP)
(WSB-TV via AP)
ATLANTA, GA — More than 90,000 people east of Atlanta were told to shelter in place Monday after a chemical plant fire.
The fire, which occurred over the weekend, produced a massive plume of smoke and a strong chemical smell and haze through Atlanta, according to the Associated Press.
Some schools canceled outdoor activities, and residents living near the fire were asked to shelter at home.
Jeff Caplan spoke to the host of Atlanta’s morning news on WSB Radio, Chris Chandler about the incident on Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News.
Here’s a transcript of their conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
JEFF CAPLAN: The Greater Metro area of Atlanta has six million people. Is that smoke wafting everywhere?
CHRIS CHANDLER: It’s crazy because where this actually happened is almost an hour south of the city itself.
When I walked out of my station this morning, it [smelled] putrid. It’s chlorine and a little bit of acid in the air. The wind shifted just enough that the smell has covered so much of the mesh row that they’ve let some of the schools out [and] canceled a lot of activities. The government’s had to order tests. You can barely see the buildings.
CAPLAN: Are there evacuations?
CHANDLER: There were a few [evacuations] closer in to where the fire was. You can see the smoke from this fire on the radar that the meteorologists use. You can see it faintly on a satellite photo. That’s how big that the plume of smoke was.
They did some evacuations closer in and in some of the further out communities, including where I live here. We’ve been inside all afternoon. They’ve ordered shelter in place, basically saying, turn off the AC, close the windows, stay inside.
CAPLAN: Okay, so how dangerous is what’s outside?
CHANDLER: Well, you know what, that’s the killer. It’s not, they keep telling us it’s not that [dangerous]. The air quality and all the tests are fine and what’s getting into the air is not necessarily dangerous, except for burning eyes, you know, and so forth. It may be for older people and very small children. It’s just a colossal annoyance unless you’re really close to what happened.
CAPLAN: Is the fire out now?
CHANDLER: They had the fire out within a few hours on Sunday. But the smoke just doesn’t stop. Imagine a cloud 10,000 feet in the air. Pull it down as if it’s on the ground. It’s a huge, huge plume, and it just has not stopped building. But the fire is burned out.
CAPLAN: What are they saying about this dissipating?
CHANDLER: It’ll be another day or two. They say they already canceled some of the schools for tomorrow. Again, just kind of as a precaution. But I think a lot of it just depends on the weather. And the wind died down completely after the hurricane passed through. Now we wish we could get a little bit more to move that thing out.
