Emergency crews cleared the scene outside the Bristol Warren Regional School District administration building shortly before 5 p.m. after tests on the white, powdery substance inside a suspicious letter came back negative.

After sitting in a yellow school bus for five hours, school administration employees, as well as two members of the Bristol Warren Regional School Committee who were inside the building at the time of the evacuation, were finally allowed to leave. They were all smiles and appreciative of first-responders as they headed for their cars.

Bristol Police Chief Kevin Lynch said the suspicious letter and its contents were tested at the scene by a special Hazardous Materials team from East Providence, and those tests came back negative. The letter and white powdery substance, joined by a Bristol detective, were headed to the Rhode Island Department of Health offices for further testing and to launch a criminal investigation.

Chief Lynch would not talk about the contents of the letter, other than to say their investigation is just beginning.

As the massive scene began to clear, with dozens of firefighters, Haz-Mat teams and police officers beginning to pack up, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jonathan Brice made a brief statement and answered a few questions from the media. He thanked police officers and firefighters for their professionalism and their response, and he said all district employees are safe and the district schools are all operating as normal.

“All of my staff are safe. All of my staff are on their way home. And the school system continues to operate as normal,” he said.

Hear Dr. Brice's comments here.

In a statement released Wednesday evening, Bristol Police Capt. Brian Burke revealed said that police learned that the letter was actually mailed to a district employee's house at an earlier date and was brought into the school administration building today.