A potential public safety threat situation concluded safely Saturday evening when the Bucks County Hazardous Materials Team was dispatched to Lower Bucks Hospital for a suspected suspicious package call after the Bucks County Rescue Squad called in the potential threat to fire officials.
Bristol area first responders cordoned off the area surrounding the hospital parking lot and those adjacent to it, which also shut down public access to the emergency room, multiple sources who asked to remain anonymous said.
Emergency Service officials discuss suspicious package at LBH
Credit: Third District Fire Department.
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Third District Fire Chief Howard McGoldrick said at 5:25 p.m. he received a call from the Bucks County Rescue Squad reporting a suspicious package in the Lower Bucks Hospital emergency room parking lot. The package was a contractors bag, with a handwritten note on it, reporting it was poisonous and that someone was in the bag. Township Police and the Bucks County Hazardous Materials Team responded to scene. The HazMat team employed a robot to open and check the bag for high-risk materials, detecting no poisonous materials.
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The bag contained, McGoldrick said, the ashes of person recently cremated and the individual responsible for placing it there suffers from a serious and persistent mental health condition.
Image Credit: Third District Volunteer Fire Company Chief Howard McGoldrick
Lower Bucks Hospital spokeswoman Michelle Aliprantis said in a request for comment; after investigating the bag the authorities determined the item in question posed “no threat.”
The area was cleared as of 7:55 p.m., McGoldrick said.
The person responsible the tense moments and high drama, who this publication will not identify unless charges are filed, was admitted to an area mental health facility late Saturday night, a source with knowledge of the situation said.
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Credit: Third District Fire Company