Capt. Joseph Bryant of the Cobb County Fire Department said testing from the county’s hazmat team showed the building was safe to reenter. The chemicals involved include sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide and several that are unknown but which were used in minuscule quantities.
Three employees of CryoLife, a medical device company, were working with the chemicals when a reaction set off a small fire and the building’s sprinkler system. The sprinklers extinguished the fire before firefighters arrived at the scene.
One of the three employees was taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
Bryant said the fire was not as serious as the county’s response would suggest.
“Any time we have a hazmat response, we send a ton of equipment out there,” he said.
As a precaution, firefighters were decontaminated as they left the building.
