Careful with those ashes

PETER BUFFA

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and that’s when they called 911.

It’s not quite Genesis 3:19, but that’s how it all began. Tenaaz

Bhandara lives in Irvine and works at Fairview Development Center in

Costa Mesa. Bhandara considers herself blessed, but on Wednesday

last, the Costa Mesa Fire Department and the Orange County Fire

Authority weren’t so sure.

It all started in India, which is far away. Bhandara is a devout

follower of an Indian guru named Satya Sai Baba. As part of her

devotionals, she carries a small bag of ash that has been blessed by

the guru in her purse.

Whenever things get intense, Bhandara rubs some of the sacred ash,

called vibhuti, on her forehead and prays to Satya Sai Baba for

guidance and solace. By the end of the day on Wednesday, Bhandara

must have been going through a lot of ash and praying hard, when a

number of envelopes with a powdery, ash-like substance turned up in

the Fairview Administration building where she works.

Costa Mesa Fire Department paramedics responded to the initial

call, which was about a woman near Bhandara’s work area who had

become ill. When the paramedics were told about the envelopes with

the odd, powdery substance, the woman who was ailing was taken to

Hoag Hospital and the Orange County Fire Authority’s Hazardous

Materials team was called in.

Keep in mind this was just after the Capitol was closed to the

public and three Senate office buildings were sealed up tight when a

powder-filled envelope that proved positive for a poison called ricin

turned up at the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Needless to say, anyone who opens an envelope these days and finds

an unidentified, unsolicited powder inside has good reason to think

very carefully about what to do next.

With the County’s hazmat team en route, the Administration

building and the 80 people who work in it were evacuated. They didn’t

know it at the time, but it would be 4 hours before they’d be allowed

back inside. Have you ever seen a hazmat team in action? It’s

impressive. The trucks are very large and the people are sealed in

white protective suits with heavy rubber gloves and respirators. The

team went through the building with a fine-toothed comb and other

equipment, and zeroed in on the offending envelopes with the suspect

powder.

The envelopes were purportedly delivered to their various

locations by Bhandara, but she strongly denied putting any substance,

powdery or otherwise, in them.

“I would never do that,” she said. “I don’t know how this powder

got there in the first place.”

Tests revealed that the powder was in fact an ash of some kind,

but not dangerous.

“But they haven’t told me if it’s the same ash I have in my desk

drawer,” said Bhandara, who was questioned for hours after the

incident.

Eventually, someone remembered the woman who had been rushed to

Hoag Hospital, a call was made, and she was released forthwith.

According to Fairview Center spokesman Jeff Helfer, “this is the

first time that we’ve had something like this happen here, as far as

I know.”

I suspect you are correct in that, Jeff.

But it certainly isn’t the first time it’s happened anywhere. The

whole saga of Bhandara and the mystic powder made me curious about

how often “white powder scares” happen these days. Thank goodness Al

Gore invented the Internet. The answer is -- very often -- from a few

calls a month in smaller locales to as many as 50 calls a day in big

cities. The great majority of them turn out to be harmless, but the

majority of them -- unlike the Fairview incident -- also prove to be

malicious hoaxes. The most popular “toxic” substances are salt,

sugar, flour, talcum powder, detergents and powdered coffee creamer.

Predictably, the number of white powder scares is directly

proportional to the coverage of stories like the recent ricin scare

in the Senate. A white powder scare at a Tacoma post office in April

of last year involved the Tacoma police and fire departments, the

Washington State police, state health inspectors, the FBI, the United

States EPA and the Army National Guard.

I’m not sure what the National Guard was there for, and talk about

the wrong day to run by the post office to buy a stamp. In the same

month, just down the road, Seattle had 25 white powder scares. The

time and trouble and dollars involved in these dramas is hard to

imagine, but in this day and age, you have to play out every hand,

even the ones with the mystical dust.

As for Bhandara, the incident at Fairview has left her shaken but

undeterred. “I’m going to continue with my ritual and my prayers,”

she said. “I’m not going to stop because of all this.” So be it. Oh,

I almost forgot. Beth is pregnant. I gotta go.

* PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs

Sundays. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].