City Hall Bomb Threat Forces 600 to Evacuate

A bomb threat Friday at Huntington Beach City Hall forced out more than 600 workers and closed the building to the public until Monday.

The threat was made at 8:30 a.m., said Richard Barnard, deputy city administrator. Police cleared the building two hours later, he said, but found nothing suspicious.

“We waited to evaluate whether we thought it was a legitimate threat and how we should respond to that,” Barnard said. “And based on the nature of the threat, we decided that 10:30 would be an adequate time to get everybody out.”

Barnard said City Hall is not very crowded on Friday mornings, and the 15-minute evacuation went smoothly. Citing the ongoing police investigation, Barnard would not say how the bomb threat was made or what was said.

“There’s nothing for us to believe right now that we have a bomb,” Senior Police Officer Mike Kelly said. “We don’t have a package, we don’t have anything like that. . . . However, we’re talking about a fairly large facility.”

Friday morning and afternoon, yellow crime-scene tape blocked the entrance to the City Hall parking lot. Paramedics and firefighters, including members of the hazardous materials team, waited by their vehicles while police searched the building’s five floors and basement, and the surrounding grounds.

Some workers at the Police Department next door were moved to safer locations within the building, Kelly said.

Barnard said he could not recall a similar situation in his 23 years with the city. But Kelly said such calls are not uncommon elsewhere.

“The only thing that isn’t routine about it is that it involves City Hall,” Kelly said. “Occasionally, unfortunately, people try to solve their problems or release their frustrations by doing something like this.”