BIOLAB FIRE: Nightly shelter-in-place to remain for people who live within 2-mile radius

ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. — A shelter-in-place order will remain in place for people who live closest to a chemical plant that caught on fire over a week ago.

The order will be in effect from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. for a two-mile radius of the BioLab plant on 1700 Old Covington Hwy SW.

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At a news conference on Monday, Rockdale County officials said it is making great progress in cleaning up the site. But it’s not enough progress where businesses near the plant can re-open.

That didn’t sit well with some business owners and residents.

“That’s irresponsible and it’s reckless to not let these businesses know,” Larry Cox yelled at the news conference.

Channel 2′s Tom Jones attended the news conference on Monday afternoon. The county said in addition to the shelter in place, it sent out an evacuation order for residents and businesses in that radius.

Jones asked why. The Environmental Protection Agency said they noticed businesses didn’t see any smoke or smell chlorine.

“And they came back and started their businesses,” said Rick Jardine with the EPA.

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Destery Carrasquillo is also a business owner in the area. He expressed his frustrations on the county response.

“We haven’t had clear answers on whether the air is truly safe or not,” he said.

“If it’s not safe at night, my question is how safe is it during the day?” he asked

The county stressed patience as they manage the crisis.

“We want this completely resolved. We have crews on ground zero working 24/7 to get this under control,” Rockdale County Chairman Oz Nesbitt, Sr. said. “I would love to say this would be over tomorrow or by this day. But we’re not at that point.”

Nesbitt says he wants nothing more than to get the county back to normal. But he says safety is a top priority and urged people to follow the order.

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