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Bottle believed to contain nitroglycerin prompts neighborhood evacuation

Posted at 11:48 AM, Jan 16, 2014
and last updated 2014-01-16 18:49:38-05

PLEASANT VIEW, Utah -- When Marjie Higgins got word to evacuate, she worried about her cats.

"I'm a senior and I live alone and they're my companions," Higgins said.

Higgins lives in the Evergreen Mobile Home Park in Pleasant View, where her neighbors found a bottle while cleaning out an old aluminum shed. They did not recognize the liquid inside the bottle, but their neighbor thought it looked like nitroglycerin, so the men left it where it was and called police.

It was 9:15 in the morning, and soon the small community had a hazmat team examining the chemical while the bomb squad brought in a robot and a reinforced trailer.

"Nitroglycerin is a very unstable, very volatile substance," said Lt. Mark Lowther of the Northern Utah Incident Management Team.

Police went door to door evacuating residents like Marjie Higgins.

It took four hours, but responders were able to identify the chemical as an industrial cleaner. The all clear came at 1:15 pm, and a relieved Marjie Higgins got to return home to her two cats.

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