The incident at the BioUrja ethanol plant in Peoria, Illinois remains very active this morning. Peoria Police Chief Brad Dixon said at an overnight news conference that one device had been made safe, but the rest of the facility had not been cleared and the search would continue throughout most of the day. Chief Dixon confirmed a device was found Friday afternoon after the plant reported a bomb threat.
Chief Dixon reiterated that the threat is credible and the incident is still active. It will not confirm if more than one device is found.
The FBI and ATF are on scene assisting Peoria authorities. A one-mile evacuation zone around the Edmond Street plant remains in effect across parts of Peoria and East Peoria, with more than 5,000 people reportedly evacuated. About 75 people find shelter in a manual academy.
The next scheduled update is at noon.
The timeline of the events as given by the commander:
1:08 PM - BioUrja contacted the Peoria Police Department in reference to a bomb threat.
14:00 (approximately) - A suspicious device was located and additional resources were requested to the scene.
18:45 - The device was determined to be reliable and a blast radius of 1 mile was determined.
19:02 - A mass evacuation notice within the 1-mile blast radius was sent.
21:12 - The device has become safe.