Huntington Beach City Hall Evacuated Over Suspicious Envelope

Between the bombings in Boston last week and the letters which tested positive for ricin, it’s understandable that people around the country are on edge for anything out of the ordinary.

This morning an employee in Huntington Beach’s City Hall opened a large envelope which arrived in the mail and discovered what appeared to be fireworks. The employee placed the envelope in a stairwell and then called police. Authorities evacuated the entire building which houses about 400 city workers.

The Huntington Beach bomb squad arrived, inspected the envelope and determined it was not going to detonate. A substance found in the envelope was also tested and found not to be a threat to anyone in the office.

I arrived at City Hall about an hour after the evacuation. News vans from all three networks and KTLA were on hand, some still shooting B-roll for their stories. The public had not been allowed back in the building but workers were slowly filtering back inside.

I had the chance to interview Bob Culhane, the Deputy Fire Marshall with the Huntington Beach Fire Department. In addition to the information above, I asked Deputy Culhane if there was a message inside the envelope which might suggest what motivated it. His response “I was not told of any message that was inside.”