UPDATE, 2:15 p.m. Emeryville streets have been reopened after the buildings were given the all-clear.
Two office buildings in Emeryville affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley were evacuated this morning after a bomb threat was reported at 7 a.m.
Emeryville and UC Berkeley police, as well as Emeryville firefighters, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officers and bomb-sniffing dogs were called in to respond, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The office space at 5885 Hollis St. is rented by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a high-level research collaboration between federal government and university.
The threat was made to the Emeryville East Building, which houses the lab’s Joint BioEnergy Institute, a research center created by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2007 “to advance the development of biofuels — liquid fuels derived from the solar energy stored in plant biomass that can replace gasoline, diesel and jet fuels,” according to the center’s website.
The two floors that house this research had not yet opened for the day and will remain closed throughout the investigation, CBS San Francisco reported. The building, occupied by about 6,200 people, also houses facilities run by several biotechnology firms, according to Bay Area News Group.
A second office building across the street was evacuated as a precaution.
Berkeley police Lt. Eric Tejada told Bay Area News Group that UC officials had received a threat, but would not elaborate further.
Last modified February 6, 2013 3:45 pm
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