Published: 10/19/2021 11:57:14 AM
GREENFIELD — The Police and Fire departments’ sweep of the Greenfield Community Energy and Technology (GCET) building found no evidence of danger after a bomb threat was reported Tuesday morning.
Dispatch received the report at approximately 8:30 a.m. and the police determined the threat was part of a wave of threats across the country after investigating the building, according to the Greenfield Police Department’s Facebook page.
Police Lt. Dan McCarthy said an email was sent to a GCET account stating, in unspecific and broad terms, that the company’s data center was going to be targeted.
“It was an email that was sent out, though it seems like a robot-type email,” McCarthy said by phone Tuesday afternoon. “It was generic in the sense like, ‘We’ll blow up your data center.’ … It seems like it was a mass email.”
McCarthy said several other agencies across “Massachusetts, across the country and even in Canada” received the threat. He said the Greenfield Police and Fire departments responded because agencies in Boston, Lowell and at Brandeis University had tied up the state’s bomb squads with the other threats.
GCET General Manager John Lunt said staff followed first responders’ orders and evacuated the building.
“When the Police and Fire departments came in,” Lunt said, “we just followed what the Police and Fire departments told us to do.”
Speaking at around 11:30 a.m., Lunt said GCET’s operations were not disrupted as staff had already returned to the office.
“The Police and Fire departments got here very quickly,” Lunt said. “They did a great and thorough job, and everything’s fine.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.