A bomb discovered at a Peoria ethanol plant forced more than 5,000 people to evacuate Friday as the FBI joined the hunt for whoever planted the device.
Authorities in Peoria, Illinois, cleared a one-mile zone around the BioUrja Renewables facility after plant workers flagged a suspicious package shortly after 1 p.m. Friday, and bomb technicians later rendered the device safe.
Just the News reported that local and federal investigators treated the threat as credible, emptied parts of Peoria and neighboring East Peoria, and kept the large plant under watch while they searched for any other devices.
No injuries, arrests, or claimed motive were announced. The facility still had not been cleared by early Saturday.
BioUrja Renewables first notified authorities of the threat shortly after 1 p.m. Friday. Officials later identified the package as a bomb and ordered residents and workers out of the surrounding area.
Peoria Mayor Rita Ali confirmed the discovery late Friday and said authorities did not know whether additional devices were present on the grounds.
The New York Post reported that a mandatory one-mile blast-radius evacuation order went out at 7 p.m. City officials told people living or working inside that radius to leave at once.
"As a precautionary measure, the Peoria Police Department is urging anyone who lives or works within a one-mile radius of the facility to immediately evacuate their homes and businesses until further notice,"
More than 5,000 people were moved out. Nearby operations, including Caterpillar, were affected as the cordon locked down the area through the evening.
Bomb technicians rendered the suspicious package safe at approximately 9:12 p.m. That ended the immediate detonation risk from the device already found. It did not end the security problem at the plant.
Fox News covered the same core sequence: a bomb package at the BioUrja ethanol plant, a one-mile evacuation touching Peoria and East Peoria, and authorities later declaring the device safe.
Police Chief Brad Dixon told an early Saturday news conference that the site still required a full sweep. The plant is large, and crews had not cleared it when he spoke.
"It's a large facility. There's going to be an exhaustive search of the facility,"
Dixon's point was plain. One neutralized package did not equal an all-clear for a major energy site that had already forced thousands from their homes.
The FBI is assisting local and state authorities. Ryan Presley, special agent in charge of the FBI's Springfield office, said agents intend to find who is responsible and put them in court.
"We will work tirelessly to identify the individual responsible and bring them to justice,"
The response stretched beyond city police. The ATF and Illinois State Police joined the effort with federal agents and bomb technicians, a multi-agency footprint that matches the stakes at an ethanol plant inside a populated corridor.
As of the early Saturday briefing, officials had named no suspect and offered no motive. They also had not said whether any other device turned up in the continuing search.
BioUrja Renewables sits in Peoria as part of the region's fuel and industrial base. A credible bomb threat there is not a routine suspicious-package call. It triggered a mile-wide evacuation, hours of uncertainty, and a federal manhunt while families and workers waited outside the zone.
What remains unsettled is basic and serious: who placed the device, why an ethanol facility was the target, whether anything else was hidden on the property, and when the plant and the surrounding neighborhoods can return to normal. Dixon's exhaustive search was still ahead when he met reporters. Presley's investigators were only beginning the work of naming a culprit.
American energy plants and the people who live beside them should not have to empty a mile of city blocks because someone left a bomb on site, and the agencies on this case owe the public a full accounting and a swift arrest.
