'Fire' Alarm Clears Passaic County Courthouse After Bomb Threat

PATERSON, N.J. -- A bomb threat initially treated as a fire alarm had the intended effect -- quickly clearing the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson this morning.

Cecilia Levine

10/08/2015 12:00 p.m.

Authorities expected to allow everyone back in just after 1 p.m., two hours after the call, Bill Maer of the Passaic County Sheriff's Office told Daily Voice.

"The courthouse was evacuated, the K-9 and bomb squad units were going room by room, Sheriff [Richard H.] Berdnick was on-scene," Maer said around noon.

Maer said he wasn't certain what prompted media reports of a fire.

"All I know," he said, "is there were no flames, no fire."

However, a Passaic County law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the incident said the initial bulletin broadcast through the courthouse referred to a fire "in order to get people out quickly."

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