Even after closing her windows and turning off her air conditioning, she couldn't escape the strong odor coming from the fire burning at a nearby chemical warehouse. She joined hundreds of others who evacuated the area and sought temporary shelter at two local schools.

"You could feel the burning. You started feeling like you wanted to cough or throw up," said Knauers, who lives less than a quarter mile from the BioLab Inc. warehouse, where chlorine and other chemicals for pools and spas were stored.

A plume of chlorine-tinged smoke from the warehouse fire east of Atlanta prompted the evacuation of hundreds of homes, the closure of nearby businesses, and many traffic hangups as Interstate 20 and surrounding roads were closed for hours at a time depending on which direction the wind was blowing.

"It's huge," said state Fire Commissioner John Oxendine, calling it the biggest fire in at least a decade in Georgia. Oxendine predicted the fire could smolder for days.

No one was seriously injured in the fire, but the plume of gray, green and white smoke reached a half-mile wide and more than 10 miles long, clearing downtown Conyers and sending at least 300 to wait out the fire in public school cafeterias.

At least nine

people went to local hospitals complaining of burning eyes and lungs. All were treated and released. Fire officials described the plume as more irritating than dangerous, although the state Environmental Protection Division was monitoring air quality around the fire.

The effects were felt in parts of Middle Georgia.

Wesley Willis, director of the Putnam County Emergency Management Agency, began tracking the cloud through the National Weather Service shortly after 9 a.m., he said.

When Willis learned workers at Rock Eagle 4-H Center could see a haze over the lake there and were starting to show symptoms of respiratory problems, he ordered the evacuation of hundreds of people at the camp, he said.

"Some staff members told me their eyes were burning, their throats were scratchy and they could pretty much taste it," Willis said.

Of the 393 people Willis said were at Rock Eagle, many of them - including burn victims attending camp - had existing health and respiratory problems.

"I felt like it would be a whole lot safer to get those people out of there," he said.

The Milledgeville chapter of the American Red Cross set up an emergency shelter for about four hours at Putnam County High School, where students were sent home early because of the threat, Willis said.

Willis said Tuesday afternoon he wasn't aware of anyone seeking medical treatment in the county as a result of the cloud.

It was not immediately clear how the fire started or what chemicals were burning, although authorities said chlorine was one of the chemicals involved.

Many of the evacuees, including nearly 100 nursing home residents, fled their homes rather than attempt to wait it out by closing windows and turning off air conditioning. Temperatures neared 90 degrees during the day.

"We want to apologize profusely for the disruption we've caused. There were no employees injured - that's what's most important to us," said Monty Eckles, vice president of the Lawrenceville-based Bio-Lab, which has 450 employees in Conyers.

The blaze had been contained in the 400-foot by 500-foot warehouse, but firefighters estimated it would burn into the evening. Emergency workers were driving around Conyers - an Atlanta suburb of about 10,000 people - to pick up anyone who might be in the smoke plume. "Right now we're trying to keep everyone out of the smoke," said Mike Lee, Rockdale County deputy fire chief.

An area high school and elementary school were set up as temporary shelters for evacuees, who whiled away the hot day playing board games and snacking on tortilla chips and apples, watching helicopter shots of the fire on local television stations. The evacuation was voluntary, but officials asked people in the smoke plume to stay with friends instead of going home Tuesday night. They said the smoke cloud would settle after the sun set.

"You could smell it. It looked like a fog rolling in. I figured discretion was the better part of valor," said Jeff Rutherford, who left his home with his wife, Jessica, and sought refuge in one of the schools. "I just hope the cats are still kicking when we get home."