On a September morning last year, a chemical fire at a Conyers, Georgia facility, operated by

BioLab, to make chlorine products for swimming pools and hot tubs, sent a toxic cloud over

the area. A Georgia Public Broadcasting podcast called Manufacturing Danger, the Biolab

story, examined that day what led up up to it, and the immediate aftermath.

That Sunday, they're, 7 o'clock in the morning, they're banging on our door.

You got to evacuate.

What? You got to get out. It's a fire.

So we're thinking, oh, okay, they'll have it under control by 5 o'clock.

So we go to the church and we sat at the church

for all those hours. So finally we realized we can't go home. Now a second season of the podcast

hears from whistleblowers and looks at the health consequences residents are experiencing a year

later and what could have been done to prevent it.

Georgia Public Broadcasting's Pamela Kirkland reported and hosts both seasons of the podcast.

Pam, walk us through what happened that morning in Conyers.

So September 29th, 2024, two biolab employees call 911 because they realize there's a chemical reaction happening in the

building. That turns into a fire, and later that day, that fire produces a toxic chemical plume

that spreads over Conyers and the surrounding area. For those of you who don't know, Conyers is a suburb of

Atlanta, so it's about 30 minutes away. And people

were complaining about a haze and a smell of chlorine for days afterwards. The fire and the

plume triggered, evacuations, shelter and place orders. And you heard from Gene Sadler earlier.

She's one of those who was forced to evacuate. She lived in Conyers for about 50 years and

says that she suffered health issues as a result of the fire. You followed some of those

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