Fitroy’s Royal Derby was forced to evacuate patrons on Friday night after the venue manager received a threat there was a bomb in the building.
Speaking with PubTIC, Rhys Capuano praised the fast work of the bomb detectives and said in the end the only harm was loss of trade.
“I took the call around 9:30 pm, and immediately called to evacuate the building,” said Capuano.
“The police arrived in about ten minutes and swept the entire premises.
“They also went through our phone records, found the caller, traced the number and established the person’s details. From that they concluded any risk was not likely to be highly technical and probably pretty obvious. After about an hour they gave us the all-clear.”
While Capuano reports that the several dozen patrons forced to evacuate had mostly moved on, with plenty alternatives close by, the incident doesn’t appear to have had any residual effect in light of the full house the Royal Derby saw for Sunday’s UFC match.
Capuano previously worked with American-owned hospitality operations in London and Europe, where training for incidents such as a bomb threat call are part of the training. He says knowing what to do in the situation definitely made a difference.
“It went as well as it possibly could … for bomb threat.”
