ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / March 15, 2000

RESERVE – The St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office and officials atMarathon/Ashland Refinery both confirmed there was a bomb threat against the refinery Sunday.

Capt. Mike Tregre, spokesman for the sheriff’s office said, “At 12:42, aforeign-sounding male called the sheriff’s office and threatened to blow up the Marathon refinery and the San Francisco Plantation in one hour.”The call was traced to a phone on Louisiana Highway 44 near W. SeventhStreet in Reserve.

Tregre said emergency operators then informed detectives, the fire department, Marathon refinery, San Francisco Plantation, Cargill, the South Louisiana Port Commission and the Louisiana State Police. Policediverted traffic on La. 44 and Louisiana Highway 61 away from therefinery.

Marathon spokesperson Gretchen Plewak said when the refinery received word of the threat, employees activated their bomb threat program.

“We began a search of the facility and evacuated personnel,” said Plewak.

While a search for a bomb was going on, the sheriff’s office received a second call from the same male at 1:07 p.m. repeating his threat to bombthe refinery. This time the call was traced to a phone at the corner of La.44 and West Sixth Street.

Plewak said it took an hour for the search crew to cover the entire refinery, and crews did not find a bomb or any other explosive device.

At 3:17 p.m. the alert was called off and traffic was allowed to proceed onRiver Road and Airline Highway.

No suspect or motive has been discovered, but Tregre said, “We are still investigating.”

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