October 18, 2004
WTOV
MARSHALL COUNTY, WV -- Emergency officials spent several hours looking for something that may have breached security after a local chemical plant received a suspicious phone call.
Columbian Chemicals, which sits near Captina, contacted West Virginia State Police shortly before noon today, saying a person with a distinct accent made a threat. According to reports, the caller said there were packages inside the plant set to explode.
The police, along with local fire and rescue squads, sealed off the area and got workers out. They spent about two hours combing the plant property but could not find anything.
As a precaution, police shut down Route 2, which left motorists stuck finding a detour and tractor trailers sitting on the roadside. This is the first Homeland Security shutdown in that industrial area many people remember, including truck drivers who travel the road everyday.
"We have to sit and wait," said Les Headly, a truck driver who makes stops in Marshall County. "And when these wheels aren't turning, we don't make money. We do it everyday, so we try to stick to a schedule."
But officials said the threat is not uncommon.
"We have one or two every couple of years, and it's not just at the plant." said Pat Mull, chief deputy of Marshall County. "We get the calls at schools, at mines. In my 27 years, we've had a lot of them. Fortunately, all of them have been for not, and that's good. But we train as if it's a valid call."
Several weeks ago, AEP's Kammer-Mitchell Plant beefed up security in that same area after seeing people park their cars along the road and take pictures.
But Mull said he doesn't understand why anyone would target Columbian Chemicals Company because it makes carbon black, which is a material used to make items like tires black in color. And, he said, the plant is a small-scale operation.
If police can determine who made the threat, that person can be prosecuted under the Patriot Act for making a terrorist threat.
From the Marshall County Mobile Newsroom
-Brandon Weghorst, NEWS 9
http://www.wtov9.com/news/3830365/detail.html