A homemade science lab in a rented luxury home near the Great Park in Irvine has sparked a heavy, multiday response from an FBI hazardous materials team and other federal and local agencies.
The landlord of the home in Altair, a guard-gated community of multimillion-dollar homes, called Irvine police on Monday afternoon, Feb. 23 to alert them to suspicious items, according to the Irvine Police Department. The home is on Cartwheel near Iluna.
Officers arrived and summoned the Orange County Fire Authority, and the investigation later was turned over to the FBI.
Irvine Police on Thursday issued a statement saying the situation began “after a juvenile at the residence mixed unknown chemicals.” Investigators were analyzing the substances, police said.
A tented area could be seen outside the house on Thursday, along with multiple unmarked trucks, trailers, Irvine Police Department vehicles and OCFA SUVs.
No nearby residents were evacuated as of mid-afternoon, when multiple black trash bags and brown cardboard boxes sat on the curb in front of the house.
The surrounding neighborhood is quiet and serene, with large houses separated from the street by manicured lawns. The community is across the street from Portola High School.
A spokeswoman in the FBI’s Los Angeles field office said the bureau’s Evidence Response Team and Hazardous Evidence Response Team responded to the residence at the request of the OCFA.
“The FBI continues to work this matter jointly with the Irvine Police Department, the Orange County Fire Authority and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department,” FBI spokeswoman Lourdes Arocho said. “There is no known threat to public safety.”
She declined to comment further.
Still, some concerned Altair homeowners were eager to learn what the items were.
Neighbors told KCBS Channel 2 that the National Guard arrived outside of the home on Monday afternoon, and that some were seen wearing shirts that said “Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team.” Images from the scene showed a massive presence of federal and local law enforcement officers.
Longtime Irvine residents can remember a separate, unrelated hazmat case in a different Irvine neighborhood 26 years ago, when law enforcement authorities removed 27 canisters packed with plastic explosives and other hazardous materials from the home of a doctor in Woodbridge.
After health inspectors cleared the house of Dr. Larry Ford, 250 residents of 52 nearby homes were allowed to return home, ending a four-day evacuation.
Ford, 49 at the time, shot himself to death on March 2, 2000, a day after police searched his house.
City News Service contributed to this report.
