Part of Apple Park has been evacuated following 'possible hazmat situation' [Update]

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Apple Store Hazmat Situation
Apple Store Hazmat Situation (Image credit: NBC Bay Area)

What you need to know

  • A portion of Apple Park has been evacuated.
  • Fire officials say a white substance was found in an envelope.
  • It isn't yet known what the powdery substance is.

Update, March 15 15 (8:00 pm ET): Apple employees have been cleared to return inside the building.

Part of Apple Park has been evacuated amid what local reports call a "possible hazmat situation" with first responders on-scene.

Information is rather sparse at the moment but local reports note that a suspicious substance was found in an envelope within the Apple Park campus.

A portion of the Apple campus in Cupertino has been evacuated Tuesday due to a possible hazmat situation, a fire official said.First responders discovered an envelope containing a white powder substance, Santa Clara County Fire Department Capt. Justin Stockman said. The substance has not been identified at this time.

Given the fact we don't yet know what that substance is it isn't easy to know what will come next or how many people have been evacuated.

Update, March 15 (8:00 pm ET) — Apple employees have been cleared to return inside the building.

In an update from NBC Bay Area, Apple employees who were evacuated from a portion of Apple Park have been cleared by authorities to return inside the building. The officials have not yet stated what the "white powder substance" turned out to be yet.

Officials later deemed the situation under control and said employees could go back inside.Officials did not immediately say what the substance was.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.