Bomb scare at Camosun a costly hoax
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Updated: November 18, 2009 5:00 PM
It turned out to be a hoax, but Saanich police are still investigating a bomb threat that involved two college campuses Wednesday morning.
Police were called to both Camosun College campuses at 11:50 a.m. after a college switchboard operator received an ambiguous bomb threat stating: "There's a bomb in the building."
David Sovka, Camosun's associate director of college and community relations, said the police were contacted just after the threat came in. The college's emergency operations process was initiated, which called for police officers and staff members to do a physical sweep of the buildings.
Since the call didn't specify a building or a campus, all buildings on both the Lansdowne and Interurban campuses were checked.
"They look for suspicious bags, objects, packages and nothing was found," said Sovka.
"Through speaking with the staff at Camosun, we believed that the campuses were safe for the students to remain at the scene at the time, and we stayed at the campuses after the immediate threat," said Saanich police Sgt. Brad Brajcich.
The school stood down from alert status around 12:15 p.m.
No classes were evacuated during the bomb threat, which Sovka said is part of the school's emergency plan.
"In another situation where we had more information, (an evacuation) would've been a possible outcome," he said. "With no more information and a sweep having been conducted, no evacuation was warranted."
Saanich police are now investigating the bomb hoax. Brajcich said several officers are investigating the origin of the phone call.
Sovka said to his knowledge, this is the first time in the college's history that it's received a bomb threat.
kslavin@saanichnews.com
