Ohio Security Insurance Company wants its money back after a chemical fire at Bio-Lab's Conyers, Georgia facility sent toxic fallout onto a nearby commercial property it insured.

The Liberty Mutual subsidiary filed a federal complaint on September 17, 2026 in the Northern District of Georgia, targeting Bio-Lab, Inc., KIK Custom Products Inc., and KIK International LLC. The suit is a subrogation action - meaning the insurer paid its policyholder's claim and is now chasing the parties it says caused the loss.

At the center of the claim is the September 29, 2024 fire at Bio-Lab's chemical plant at 1700 Covington Highway in Conyers - an incident the complaint says forced approximately 17,000 people to evacuate and prompted shelter-in-place advisories covering around 90,000 residents across the Atlanta metro area.

The insurer's policyholder, Olympic Two LLC, owns two commercial rental properties at 1317 and 1319 Olympic Court SW in Conyers, less than a mile from the Bio-Lab plant. According to the complaint, smoke, soot, chlorine gas, chemical residue, and other corrosive substances drifted from the burning facility and settled on those buildings, corroding metal roofing and wall systems, damaging HVAC equipment, gutters, and other building components. Ohio Security says it has paid more than $115,405.28 in indemnity to Olympic Two LLC so far, with the claim still open and further payments possible.

The complaint walks through the fire in detail. Shortly after 5 a.m. on September 29, 2024, an employee heard a popping sound inside a warehouse known as Plant 12 - a 275,125-square-foot building constructed in 2019 to store pool and spa chemicals. She stepped out of a break area and concluded that chemical product had gotten wet and was reacting. There were no flames yet.

Staff called 911 around 5:10 a.m. after toxic vapor plumes filled the warehouse. Rockdale County Fire Rescue arrived by 5:30 a.m., and within two minutes, four of the warehouse's seven sprinkler zones were flowing water. According to the complaint, that made things worse.

Here is why. The chemicals stored in Plant 12 were mainly chlorinating agents used in swimming pool products - primarily Trichloroisocyanuric Acid, or TCCA. In a pool, TCCA dissolves safely. But when small amounts of water hit it in a confined space, the complaint says it triggers a runaway heat reaction that releases toxic chlorine gas and can catch fire.

The sprinkler water mixed with those chemicals, and around noon a second, larger fire erupted, producing massive plumes of black and then multicolored smoke, the filing alleges. By about 8 p.m. the warehouse roof and most of its walls had collapsed.

The amount of chemicals inside the building sits at the heart of the negligence claim. By September 2024, the complaint alleges, Plant 12 held roughly 5,000 "super sacks" - large bulk bags each weighing about 2,750 pounds - totaling approximately 13.9 million pounds of reactive chemicals. That was more than double the 6.2 million pounds the defendants told Rockdale County they planned to store when they applied for permits, according to the filing. Roughly 2.9 million pounds sat outside the building's designated "bunker" area, a section behind a firewall meant for the most dangerous materials.

The resulting toxic plume contained chlorine gas, bromine vapor, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen bromide, and phosgene gas, the complaint says. Authorities evacuated approximately 17,000 people, closed Interstate 20 in both directions, and issued a county-wide shelter-in-place order that lasted the better part of five days. Local media reported around 90,000 people in the Atlanta metro area were advised to shelter in place, and nightly warnings within a two-mile radius continued for nearly three weeks, according to the filing.

The complaint does not stop at September 2024. It alleges the Conyers plant has a history of fires and chemical releases stretching back two decades. A 2004 warehouse fire caused an explosion and sent a chlorine plume affecting residents within 50 miles. A 2016 storage shed fire was reportedly discovered only because a nearby resident smelled chemicals. Two fires in September 2020 - just four days apart - involved TCCA reactions and toxic releases. And a separate Bio-Lab facility in Westlake, Louisiana caught fire during Hurricane Laura in August 2020, releasing yet another chemical plume. A US Chemical Safety Board report on the Louisiana incident, published in April 2023, identified several safety failures including delayed response and inadequate fire protection, the complaint says.

The filing also points to regulatory action. OSHA allegedly issued six citations and monetary penalties to Bio-Lab on March 28, 2025 for workplace safety violations including improper chemical storage, according to the complaint. The CSB's investigation into the September 2024 fire remains ongoing, with updates released in November 2024 and May 2025.

Ohio Security brings five counts against all three defendants: negligence, strict liability for what it calls an ultrahazardous activity (the manufacture and storage of water-reactive chemicals), public nuisance, private nuisance, and trespass. It seeks its indemnity payments (more than $115,405.28), its policyholder's $1,000 deductible, interest, attorney's fees, and costs. A jury trial has been demanded.

The corporate structure matters here too. KIK Custom Products acquired Bio-Lab in 2013 to expand its pool and spa treatment business. The complaint alleges Bio-Lab operates as a "conduit" for KIK Custom, that all three entities share officers and a common headquarters, and that KIK Custom and KIK International should be treated as jointly liable because they effectively control Bio-Lab's operations.

For claims and subrogation teams, the filing is a clean example of an insurer exercising its recovery rights after paying out on a commercial property loss caused by a neighboring industrial operation - and a reminder that even a mid-six-figure payout can land in federal court when the responsible party operates at this scale.

The allegations in the complaint have not been tested in court, and no findings of liability have been made.