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Tuesday, December
24, 2002, 2:15 p.m.
By BRANDON
LOOMIS
Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO
(AP) -- Reports of a suspicious white powdered
substance caused police and firefighters to
close down a five-square-block area of the north
side and evacuate the Lincoln Park Zoo Tuesday.
But the substance turned out to be a
harmless flour or similar powder used to mark a
jogging course, the city's fire commissioner
said.
More than 100 police officers and
firefighters, some wearing special suits to deal
with hazardous materials, were called into the
area.
Streets were blocked off. Several
entrances and exits to Lake Shore Drive, one of
the principal highways in the city, were closed.
The public was warned by authorities to stay
away.
Field testing equipment gave
readings indicating that the substance "could be
anything in the anthrax areas," said Fire
Commissioner James Joyce.
"But they were
false positives," he added.
"It's a
completely inert substance," Joyce said at a
news conference. "It's scattered over a three-
or four-block area." Members of a running club
had used the powder to paint arrows to show the
runners were to go, he said.
Asked if,
in the current security atmosphere, people
should be putting flour on the ground to mark
things, Joyce said, "How about red flour?" Then
he added, "This will alert them that they need
to think about what they are doing."
"We're satisfied with the results,"
Joyce added. "We do what we have to do. We
respond and protect the citizens."
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All
Rights Reserved.)
More on the
story...
The Lincoln Park Zoo grounds
were reopened after being closed during the
hazardous materials alert, according to a news
release from the zoo.
All the buildings,
however, will remain closed Tuesday, the release
said.
The zoo will reopen for business
as usual Wednesday morning, with both the
grounds and animal houses open to the public,
according to the release. All fire personnel had
left the scene by 1:45 p.m., and all roads had
been re opened.
The area closed to
traffic by the police and fire activity Tuesday
afternoon included the perimeters Fullerton to
North avenues, and Lincoln Park West to Lake
Shore Drive. As of noon this also included the
ramps from LSD to North Avenue and Fullerton, as
well as northbound Clark Street at Armitage
Avenue, Cannon Drive and Stockton Drive,
according to the City Department of
Transportation.
Emergency workers first
responded to the park at 9:22 a.m., with the
Level 1 Hazmat upgraded to a Level 2 response at
10:39 a.m. and a Level 3 response at 11 :29
a.m., said fire media Chief Dennis Gault.
"We received a call from the police
department relative to a suspicious substance at
the Lincoln Park Zoo," Gault said of the
original report.
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