BioLab fined $61K after OSHA says improperly stored chemicals caused fire

“BioLab has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission,” the Labor Department said in a statement.

Credit: John Spink

Credit: John Spink

During an ongoing and separate investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, BioLab officials had said the facility began a permanent fire watch up to three months before the Sept. 29 incident. That was after they found a strong order from oxidizers at two buildings, including the Plant 12 storage warehouse where the September fire originally started, according to a report by the CSB.

At about 5 a.m. that day, a BioLab employee assigned to watch the Plant 12 warehouse heard a popping sound. He notified another employee of the wet product before seeing “large toxic vapor plumes inside the building,” the report stated.

There was no fire until 6:30 a.m. when flames were visible through the roof, located above where the employee first saw the chemical reaction. A shelter-in-place order was issued an hour later, and the fire was extinguished by 8 a.m.

However, a second fire erupted at about noon, which produced the thick black and multicolored plumes of smoke eventually seen for miles. The CSB stated a first responder described the scene as “major chemical reactions.”

The OSHA investigation determined the company stored various chemicals at the warehouse. According to the CSB report, the bulk chemicals at Plant 12 were 99% trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA) and 99% sodium dichloroisocyanurate (DCCA), solid oxidizers that were stored in super sacks before being taken to other parts of the complex. Officials said those chemicals have a chlorine odor and can release “toxic and corrosive products” like chlorine gas and hydrogen chloride “upon decomposition.”

The building also stored super sacks of bromochloro-5,5-dimethylimidazolidine-2,4-dione (BCDMH), which can release chlorine gas and hydrogen chloride, along with bromine gas and hydrogen bromide when it breaks down, the report stated.

In the November investigation update by the CSB, Chairperson Steve Owens said the risk the incident posed to the surrounding community was “completely unacceptable.”

“Reactive chemical incidents can have severe environmental and public safety impacts due to the combination of fire, toxic gas emissions and hazardous materials involved, and BioLab and any other facility that has reactive chemicals onsite must manage those materials safely,” Owens said in a statement.

From the start of the fire until Oct. 17, those within a two-mile radius of the plant were given nightly shelter-in-place warnings by the Rockdale County emergency management agency. The smoke eventually drifted to parts of metro Atlanta, where residents reported a chlorine smell and haze.

In a statement Monday night, BioLab said it has been closely cooperating with OSHA and “takes operational safety very seriously.”

“OSHA’s investigation did not focus on the cause of the incident, and the agency shared no findings with the company that would substantiate the statement in the press release about the cause,” a company spokesperson said. “Consistent with our commitment to working collaboratively with OSHA, we continue to dialogue with the agency and its representatives as we work together to further enhance our safety procedures for the future.”

Credit: John Spink/AJC

Credit: John Spink/AJC

OSHA said it levied $61,473 in proposed penalties against BioLab, which were slightly less than the $75,499 issued in January 2024 against SK Battery America Inc., an electric vehicle battery maker. That OSHA investigation found that the South Korean-owned company exposed its employees to unsafe levels of cobalt, nickel and manganese at its Commerce plant.

Four months later, in April 2024, OSHA said it levied $77,200 in proposed fines after SK Battery failed to train its employees on how to protect themselves from toxic fumes produced by electric vehicle battery fires. Workers suffered potentially permanent respiratory damage in an October 2023 lithium battery fire.

In September, North Georgia factory Primex Plastics Corp. agreed to pay more than $154,000 in back wages to hundreds of employees after a Department of Labor investigation determined it failed to pay overtime. More than $200,462 in penalties were also levied against Pure Beauty Farms, the owner of a plant nursery that kept migrant workers in unsafe housing in Greensboro, the Department of Labor said in 2023.

In 2022, OSHA proposed $190,758 in penalties against Place Vendome Holding Co., a South Georgia pillow manufacturer. That was after OSHA found seven repeated serious violations following a November 2021 inspection, including for obstructing exit routes, failing to post well-lit signs identifying exit routes, and stacking materials in unstable or unsecured tiers.