News

UPDATE:
Ferndale Police Sgt. Robert Lindgren says the artillery shell that prompted the evacuation of a building and the partial closure of Main Street this morning while the county bomb squad responded was empty.

Lindgren also corrected some inaccurate information initially disseminated to the Journal by police amid the dynamic events of the morning. Lindgren says police were notified this morning of a possible explosive ordnance at a book store on Main Street and he responded, taking some pictures of the device to send to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad, which then asked him to evacuate the building and cordon off the area while it responded.

The device was ultimately removed using the bomb squad’s robot and then determined to be empty.

Lindgren says it was subsequently determined the book store’s owners acquired several boxes of what they thought were books about a month ago from some kind of estate sale. When they began going through the boxes today, Lindgren says they came across the antique artillery shell, were concerned and contacted Fortuna Police Chief Casey Day. The device was then reported to police dispatch, prompting Lindgren’s response.

PREVIOUSLY:

Part of Ferndale's Main Street has been cordoned off and a building evacuated due to fears that an antique artillery shell on display at a book store may be live, according to Police Chief Ron Sligh.

Sligh said the store, Butterfat Books, put the shell out on display some time back and concerns began to circulate yesterday.

"Someone saw it and thought, 'Those things can be dangerous if they're live,'" Sligh said, adding that police then contacted the store's owner to inquire about it and they reported they'd obtained the shell at an estate sale.

Police took a picture of the shell and sent it to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office bomb squad, which decided to "err on the side of caution" and send bomb technicians to come look at the device and asked Ferndale police to evacuate the building and block the surrounding area, Sligh said.

Sligh said the store’s owners recently went to an estate sale in Crescent City, where they bought some boxes of books and found the shell inside one of them. As such, Sligh said, they were unable to speak to its history.

"They don't know enough about it to say, 'Absolutely it's been made inert,'" he said. "So we just need to have someone who's experienced and can look at it and say whether it's safe or not."