What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

A chemical fire in a BioLab sends dangerous sulfur acid clouds in the air, and caused mandatory evacuations in Conyers GA, United States on September 30, 2024.

Haze and a chlorine odor are likely to descend upon Atlanta on Thursday as officials struggle to contain the fallout from a chemical lab fire that ignited Sunday.

Air quality monitoring detected elevated chlorine levels overnight around a BioLab facility in Conyers, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency said in a news release Wednesday.

With weather models predicting a wind shift, there is a high likelihood that people across metro Atlanta will wake up on Thursday morning seeing haze and smelling chlorine, the agency said.

The cause of the elevated chlorine levels was a fire that ignited on the roof of the BioLab plant in Conyers, in Rockdale County, at 5 a.m. Sunday. It has been put out, but the resulting release of chemical gas prompted a shelter-in-place recommendation for the entire county, population 93,570, as well as mandatory evacuation orders for residents near the plant.

While the air quality findings announced Wednesday were above the action level for chlorine, the emergency management agency said workers on site have continued to make progress in neutralizing the product. Periodic increases in chlorine levels around the facility are expected as the process continues, it said.

• Read More