Peoria police search ethanol plant as one-mile evacuation remains active

Police in Peoria, Illinois, ordered a one-mile evacuation near an ethanol plant Friday after deeming a package a credible threat, and a bomb technician later made it safe, Chief Brad Dixon said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

“A device has been identified. We know it's a credible threat. We know it's a bomb,” Peoria Mayor Rita Ali told NBC affiliate WEEK, NBC News reported.

The BioUrja Renewables plant occupies a site on Edmund Street that previously housed the ADM plant. It stands beside the Illinois River in southern Peoria, which has 110,000 residents. Ali told WMBD News it is “a plant that has ethanol and highly combustible types of chemicals, and so that's what alarms us.”

Ali called it “a real crisis situation right now.”

The evacuation area extended across the river into parts of both Peoria and neighboring East Peoria, Ali said. More than 5,000 residents and workers were evacuated as a precaution, CNN reported, citing officials. No arrests had been made and no injuries had been reported.

The order was still active early Saturday as crews continued searching the plant, Dixon said.

“The area of BioUrja has not been rendered safe, just the package that was on site. It's a large facility, there's going to be an exhaustive search,” Dixon said. He said the search would probably take several hours.

BioUrja sought police assistance after a bomb threat, which Dixon said came to officers’ attention a little after 1 p.m. Friday. Officers discovered a suspicious package that afternoon, and police subsequently judged it a credible threat and established a one-mile blast radius.

Police urged everyone who lived or worked inside that radius to evacuate immediately at around 7 p.m. At 9:12 p.m., a bomb technician made the package safe.

Authorities at the local and federal levels gave no details about the device. “I don't want to get into how many we found, where we found them,” Dixon told NBC News.

Ali said officials did not know “whether there's one device or whether there's multiple devices.”

During much of Friday evening, the emergency was described as a bomb threat rather than a verified bomb. Bomb threats and brief evacuations are relatively common in the United States, but officials find explosive devices capable of posing a large-scale threat far less often.

Dixon said bomb threats nationally are usually not legitimate, but “this is not the case here. We found a credible package that we deem to be a threat.” “We're not considering this a hoax,” he said.

Responders included the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Illinois State Police, the Peoria Fire Department and the Peoria County Sheriff's office. The Illinois Secretary of State's Office was involved, too.

“While it is early in the investigation, know this: we will work tirelessly to identify the individual responsible and bring them to justice,” FBI Special Agent Ryan Presley said.

Gov. JB Pritzker urged residents to “follow directions from law enforcement and stay clear of the area.” Pritzker and Rep. Darin LaHood posted on social media that they were monitoring events and urged residents to obey evacuation orders.

Rep. Eric Sorensen met evacuees at a shelter Friday night. “If you are within the one mile radius of the chemical plant BioUrja in Peoria, you have to evacuate,” he said.

Police sent people seeking shelter to Manual Academy, a Peoria high school. Ali told residents a local high school basement was available for shelter.

Country singer Jon Pardi canceled his Friday concert at the Peoria Civic Center. “At the direction of the Chief of Police, tonight's concert has been canceled due to an active local safety concern,” he wrote on Instagram, adding that tickets would be refunded.