The hunt is on for the people who planted a bomb inside Peoria’s BioUrja Renewables ethanol plant. A joint investigation — Peoria Police, the FBI’s Springfield field office, the ATF and Illinois State Police — is working to identify who left a real explosive device inside the plant on Friday, while more than 5,000 people inside a one-mile radius spent the night out of their homes and bomb technicians rendered the device safe at 9:12 p.m. No suspect has been named, and no motive has been given.
Why it matters: the plant — the former ADM facility at 1 Edmund Street, on the riverfront by downtown — sits within a mile of homes and businesses across Peoria and East Peoria, on both sides of the Illinois River. Until the whole sprawling facility is searched and cleared, those families cannot go home, and officials say the search could run late into the weekend. About 70 people spent Friday night at the city’s shelter at Manual Academy.
The FBI’s Springfield office is in the case at Peoria Police’s own request. Special Agent in Charge Ryan Presley said the office was asked to assist Peoria Police with the suspicious package at BioUrja and is working with local authorities to identify whoever is responsible. Police Chief Brad Dixon, who briefed reporters through the night, was blunt about why the response is so large: "This is a credible threat. We need to take the blast radius seriously." What officials have not released: how the threat first reached the company, and any detail of the device beyond wire descriptions of a pipe bomb. And despite claims circulating online that more bombs were found, Dixon refused to confirm any additional device — the honest position is that the plant simply has not been cleared yet.
Mayor Rita Ali confirmed on Friday night what the evacuation already told residents: it was a real bomb, and the threat was credible — while cautioning that investigators did not yet know whether other devices existed anywhere in the facility.
How yesterday unfolded, in the officials’ own sequence. At 1:08 p.m. on Friday, BioUrja notified Peoria Police that the company had received a bomb threat and asked for assistance. At about 2 p.m., officers located a suspicious package at the facility, and bomb technicians were brought in. At 6:45 p.m., authorities determined the package was a credible threat and set a one-mile blast radius around the plant. At 7:02 p.m., evacuation orders went out to everyone living or working inside that radius, in parts of Peoria and East Peoria, and shelters were opened. At 9:12 p.m., bomb technicians rendered the package safe — but the large industrial facility itself was not cleared, so an exhaustive search for any additional devices ran overnight and into Saturday, with the evacuation still in effect.
The situation now: the device is safe, nobody was injured, and two efforts run side by side — the building-by-building search of the plant, and the hunt for whoever planted the bomb. Dixon warned the search would likely run well into Saturday, probably late into the weekend. When the plant is cleared, or a suspect is named, this story will be updated.
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