Fullerton/ Garden Grove : Bomb Scares Prompt Evacuations at 2 Sites

About 1,000 people were evacuated Monday from the Humanities Building at Cal State Fullerton after an anonymous male caller said a bomb had been planted there, a university spokesman said.

“There tends to be an increase in this kind of episode” toward the end of each semester, when papers come due and final exams are given, said Jerry Keating, director of public affairs for the campus.

Campus police evacuated the eight-story building, where classes were in session and there are faculty offices, according to Keating. No explosive device was found, and the building was reopened after about an hour.

Another bomb threat earlier Monday prompted the managers of a Garden Grove senior citizens’ home to evacuate their 117 residents for about 20 minutes, although police did not believe an evacuation of the Garden Manor on Chapman Avenue was necessary.

“We had a bomb threat at that location . . . (but) there was no suspicious device found at all,” said Garden Grove Police Sgt. Paul Prince. “We don’t evacuate unless a suspicious device is found.”

Authorities did not believe the two incidents were related.