Peoria lifted its one-mile evacuation order at 1 p.m. Central on Saturday, November 14, after investigators finished searching the sprawling BioUrja Renewables ethanol plant and found no additional suspicious devices, Peoria Police Chief Brad Dixon said. The closure of the nearby Illinois River also ended at 1 p.m., and residents who had sheltered across Peoria and East Peoria were told they could return, NPR Illinois (WCBU) reported.

Source: NPR Illinois / WCBU

The all-clear ends the emergency phase of an incident that began on Friday afternoon. As Awaaz Punjab reported earlier on Saturday, BioUrja notified Peoria police about a bomb threat at about 1:08 p.m. Central on Friday, November 13; a suspicious package arrived at the plant at around 2 p.m.; authorities deemed it a credible threat at about 6:45 p.m. and set a one-mile evacuation radius; and bomb technicians rendered the device safe at about 9:12 p.m. on Friday night. The plant had not been cleared at that point, so the evacuation — covering more than 5,000 people in Peoria and East Peoria in the earlier reporting — stayed in place overnight while the search continued.

Saturday's search began at about 6 a.m. with bomb technicians and BioUrja employees, Dixon said. It paused for technical issues at about 9:45 a.m. and resumed at about 10:15 a.m., finishing before 1 p.m. Officials described the facility as about “44 and a half football fields” in size, with many areas to search. The plant contains “ethanol and highly combustible types of chemicals,” officials said, and Dixon noted the one-mile blast radius was determined by the materials inside the facility, not necessarily by the size of the device found.

On the device itself, the chief was deliberately narrow on Saturday. Dixon would not confirm whether what was found was actually an explosive device, or what kind of device it was. “I'm just going to tell you the wording we use: It was a credible threat,” Dixon said at the press conference. “We dealt with it last night and that process of determining what was in that device is underway currently,” he said.

Peoria Mayor Rita Ali, who had earlier told reporters “we know it's a bomb,” clarified that wording on Saturday afternoon. “Words do matter. Bomb is my interpretation. People don't necessarily understand the word 'device' as it relates to this situation or the seriousness of it. I prefer to make things clear from my standpoint and chose to use that wording,” Ali told WCBU. “Law enforcement is correct in not labeling it as a bomb until the contents have been fully examined to determine if the 'device' contains explosives. Mine are lay terms.” Readers should therefore treat “bomb” as the mayor's lay description, and “credible-threat device, contents still being examined” as the police position on the record.

River, shelters and the displaced

The Illinois River closure ended at the same 1 p.m. mark. Capt. Brandy Parker of the U.S. Coast Guard said a safety perimeter had been established from mile markers 160 to 164, with no vessels allowed through. “We recognize the importance of the Illinois River to regional and national commerce,” Parker said. Dixon said the Department of Homeland Security was not involved, while federal partners including the ATF, the FBI and the Coast Guard worked the incident; officials would not confirm whether it is being investigated as a terrorist threat or attack.

People in the evacuation area had sheltered at Manual High School, 811 S. Griswold Street in Peoria, and at EastSide Centre, 1 EastSide Drive in East Peoria. Dixon said about 60 to 80 people were sheltered at midday at Manual High School on the city's South Side, where the American Red Cross provided cots and blankets, and that officers went door-to-door overnight in the evacuation zone to point people to resources. The City of Peoria set up a special information phone number, (309) 673-4527. The evacuation zone had included parts of Downtown Peoria, much of the city's South Side and Warehouse District, and had extended across the Illinois River to homes and several Caterpillar buildings. It was not a mandatory evacuation, officials said, but residents were strongly urged to stay out of the one-mile radius while it lasted.

“We displaced people's lives. We moved people out of their homes. That's not an easy thing to do,” Dixon said. “This has never happened in my career. I don't know that Peoria has ever had to deal with moving this many people from this many locations. We had to throw it together in short order. Certainly we could've done better, but this is a learning experience.” As the order lifted, Peoria police began removing street barricades and reopening roads, and the U.S. Coast Guard lifted its river restrictions, according to 25News Now reporting carried by local stations; CityLink buses that had been detouring around Washington Street, Adams Street and Jefferson Avenue were to resume normal routes as roadways reopened.

What is still not known

A criminal investigation is underway, but officials on Saturday would not say whether they have any suspects, and no arrest was announced in the reporting reviewed. Dixon said the threat was received “electronically,” but he would not speak to BioUrja's security protocols or share information about why the facility may have been targeted, and there was no BioUrja representative at the press conference. No injuries were reported in the Associated Press reporting carried by KWBU. The plant is the former Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) site at 1 Edmund Street in Peoria.

What happens next is the investigation, not the evacuation: determining what was inside the device rendered safe on Friday night, identifying who sent the electronic threat and placed the package, and deciding whether any charge — local or federal — follows. Until police publish that determination, the accurate summary of Saturday is limited and important: the search is complete, no second device was found, the one-mile zone and the river are open again, and the case itself is not closed.