A big fire at a lab near Atlanta spewed chemicals into the air. Here’s what we know.

Amid the devastation and mass flooding wrought by Hurricane Helene, the Atlanta metropolitan area had yet another disaster: A chemical fire released a massive plume of potentially toxic gasses into the air. And it’s spreading.

Early Sunday morning, a fire erupted at BioLab, a chemical plant specializing in pool and spa water care, in Conyers, just 30 miles east of Atlanta in Rockdale County. It’s unknown what caused the fire as of publication, but local fire department officials say water from the triggered sprinkler system had reacted with the various chemicals in the building.

Around 11 am ET on Sunday, officials requested that all church services be closed. By 11, several local roads were closed, and by around 1 pm officials ordered about 17,000 people in Conyers to evacuate, as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Georgia’s environmental protection division ran air quality tests, where they detected chlorine around the facility. Chlorine is a toxic gas that can have negative short- and long-term health effects. Around noon, as first responders were putting the initial fire out and removing products from the facility, the fire reignited.

“We are all focused on remediating the situation as rapidly as possible,” the company said in its most recent statement.

Officials then instituted a shelter-in-place order late Sunday evening for Rockdale County, which comprises around 90,000 people. Fulton County, which includes parts of Atlanta, has reported “a haze and strong chemical smell” this morning, which local officials stated is likely due to the BioLab fire.

Although acute exposure to chlorine gas causes various symptoms, including coughing, irritation in the eyes and nose, skin irritation, and a burning sensation in the chest, multiple agencies said that the chlorine in the air does not pose a threat to most people. At time of publication, health agencies have not identified any specific high-risk populations such as those with preexisting respiratory conditions.

All of this comes after Hurricane Helene’s wreckage, leaving resources and communication from local officials stretched thin. It’s an alarming glimpse at what can happen when multiple disasters occur at once, and it highlights the need for better preparation for such cases.

In the wake of the fire and response, local residents, frustrated by a lack of communication, have taken to social media to voice their distaste and have organized a petition to shut the plant down. At least one law firm has filed a suit against BioLabs.

Officials recommend local residents keep their windows and doors closed and the AC off, presumably to prevent toxic gasses from getting in. All Rockdale County government facilities remain closed for the week.

On its Facebook page, the county posted a video showing the aftermath of the fire. The front, left, and right sides of the plant “totally collapsed,” according to Marian McDaniel, the county’s chief of fire rescue. She said that once they’ve removed debris from the fire, they will bring down the remaining side and retrieve the remaining “product” from the ruins of the facility.

“Nothing that we can do or will be done to make this product any worse than it already is,” McDaniel told the press. The clouds and smoke should go away once the remaining chemicals are removed from the building.

But as the gas dissipates, which may take days, it’s also moving toward other parts of Georgia — cities and towns that may not have had clear directions on what to do. That’s on top of dealing with the fallout from Helene.

Rockdale’s shelter-in-place initially was lifted Sunday evening, and then reinstated Monday. The Georgia Emergency Services and Homeland Security Agency issued a local area emergency Monday afternoon to residents living within a 50-mile radius of the BioLab fire, a full day later. At that point, thousands of residents in nearby Fulton and Gwinnett Counties had already left their homes to go to school, work, doctor’s appointments, and more, unsure why the air smelled adjacent to a swimming pool.

The Atlanta Fire Rescue Department conducted air quality tests Monday afternoon to detect chlorine and other chemicals in the air across the city. They said they’ve found “no immediate life safety issues,” but didn’t provide further information about chlorine levels. They also have requested additional testing from state and federal agencies.

Georgia’s Department of Public Health has added that there is “no significant toxicity identified in the smoke” so far, but that people with heart or lung disease may be particularly affected and experience symptoms, such as shortness of breath.

In a press release on Tuesday, Rockdale County recommended residents shelter in place if they can smell chlorine or if the plume is over their area. By the late afternoon, county officials recommended people stay indoors from 7 am to 7 pm until Friday, out of concern that the weather may cause air quality readings to “dip to concerning levels for those in direct exposure to the plume.”

While the immediate focus is on cleaning up the damaged facility, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about how the BioLab fire will affect neighboring communities in the future.

The EPA is currently monitoring the air quality in eight places near the BioLab plant and has released three reports so far with summaries of chemicals detected in the air. However, in three out of the eight stations, including a station located at the BioLab plant, the instruments used do not have a sensor to detect chlorine. Vox has reached out to the EPA for comment.

Long-term exposure to chlorine can cause prolonged health issues such as potentially irreparable lung damage. Even a one-time exposure to high levels of chlorine can have negative health effects, which makes the question of how much is currently in the air over Georgia only more pressing.

This isn’t the first fire to break out at this BioLab plant in Conyers — there have been at least three in the past two decades. The last fire happened just four years ago. It raises the question of accountability, whether the plant has done anything to meaningfully prevent these disasters, and the impact of repeated exposure to chemical fires and leaks on communities.

It’s also too early to tell what, if any, accountability BioLab will face after this fire. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the chairman of Rockdale County’s governing body, Oz Nesbitt, said that the Board of Commissioners will be speaking with BioLab’s leadership about “their safety and their mitigation plan and their security plan inside their operations.”

“BioLab has been a good corporate community partner,” said Nesbitt at the Tuesday press conference. “But this is not about economic development. This is about public health and public safety. And in Rockdale County, public safety has always been and will always be our number one top priority.”

Over 1,000 residents have signed a petition to shut the chemical plant down, and a class action lawsuit has been filed by injury law firm Morgan & Morgan against BioLab and KIK Consumer Products.

“Unless something is done to make them accountable for this one, there’s no reason to expect their behavior to change,” Rene Rocha, an attorney with Morgan & Morgan, told Vox.

While multiple agencies responding to the incident have assured residents that the smoke poses little to no harm to human health, many residents are unsatisfied and have left comments on Rockdale County’s Facebook page expressing their concern and frustration about the uncertainties.

“Who is going to jail over this?” wrote one commenter. “Just asking, considering how many people are going to be injured by this, and how much damage will be done to the local environments? This facility is a known problem, and has been for years.”

Update, October 1, 5:50 pm ET: This story, originally published September 30, has been updated to include new information about Rockdale extending its shelter-in-place order, EPA readings, and a class action lawsuit.