BioLab, the Westlake, Louisiana, chlorine manufacturer, has been fined $2,500 by the Louisiana State Police in connection with the July 2024 chemical incident that resulted in a shelter-in-place order for residents in the area.
The July 2 incident, which was initially reported as a fire, resulted in an enormous white chemical cloud, causing the Coast Guard to shut down the nearby waterway. Interstate 10 was also closed as a precaution.
The Louisiana State Police imposed the $2,500 penalty, accusing BioLab of violating the state’s Right to Know law.
According to the State Police report concerning the incident, BioLab was required to notify them immediately when the incident began at about 7:30 a.m. but did not actually report the incident until just after 9 a.m.
BioLab’s general manager, Garrett Speights, said there were no injuries, but more than a dozen BioLab employees reported otherwise.
“Through the entirety of the event, our local response team did a great job finding the source, containing it, and eliminating it,” Speights said. “We had no injuries during the event, which is obviously a great thing.”
The incident was caused when moisture from an unknown source contacted large quantities of trichlor, which caused an exothermic reaction, producing vast quantities of chlorine gas and smoke. To stop the reaction, it was necessary to saturate the chemical with large amounts of water, which BioLab employees did while wearing personal protective equipment. However, there are concerns that the personal protective equipment was inadequate.
BioLab on fire BioLab is an industrial area on the service road south of I-10.
https://www.klfy.com/louisiana/biolab-fire-causes-shelter-in-place-in-westlake/ BioLab
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A police investigator who followed up on the condition of BioLab’s employees determined that several had skin irritation similar to a sunburn, shortness of breath, and were coughing up mucous. The investigator reported that one employee told him “the fullface air purifier he was wearing got clogged with a large amount of smoke.” Another said he had a cough and “his filter was saturated due to moisture.” Officials have not determined the water source that caused the incident.
“We did not have any reporting of warehouse damage or leaking previous to the event, and there were no causes for water intrusion that had been identified previous to the event,” Speights said.
“There had been quite a few pretty heavy rain events that happened around the event, so we’re just trying to look into that. We just haven’t found the root cause yet.”
