WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — Patients and staff were forced to evacuate a Winter Haven medical clinic twice on Wednesday due to two separate reports of smoke and a bomb threat.
The Winter Haven Fire Department first responded just after noon to Gessler Clinic on 1st Street N. over reports of "smoke and haze inside of the building," the police department wrote.
The building was evacuated and firefighters searched the entire clinic campus. Police said they did not find any smoke or haze and staff and patients were cleared to come back inside.
However, once people were back in the building, they discovered a voicemail left on a phone in the administration area from a caller threatening to blow the building up.
"Immediately, the building was evacuated again," police said.
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Police did an initial sweep of the building. A bomb detection K-9 from the Polk County Sheriff's Office then arrived to conduct a thorough search of the campus. Again, crews did not find anything suspicious.
Staff and patients were cleared to re-enter the building once again at 2:15 p.m. In total, they were evacuated for more than two hours.
The origin of the bomb threat call is under investigation.
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