BOMB SQUAD BLOWS UP BOX.

Byline: Stacy Brown Daily News Staff Writer

Roads were blocked at Santa Clarita's Civic Center Friday morning and squad cars lined the area outside the sheriff's station, court house and near City Hall as a bomb squad checked a suspicious looking box found at dawn.

As a precaution, they blew it up - and found a box of flowers with a note.

It was unknown Friday who placed the package - or why.

Rarely are these ``suspicious packages'' real bombs, but officials say every precaution is taken just in case - even if it means blowing up a box of crayons, a briefcase or a child's lunch box, officials said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Mulcahy, who was the watch commander in charge of the morning shift at the Magic Mountain Parkway station, said he noticed the strange looking package when he got to work at 5:30 a.m.

What alarmed him was ``the military style numbers on a piece of paper that was visible from the top of the box.

``I saw a couple of roses and a tissue which read 0001PST, which in military (language) stands for 1 minute past noon Pacific Standard Time,'' Mulcahy said.

Sgt. Alan Humphries, a 20-year veteran with the Los Angeles County sheriff's arson and explosive squad said suspicious-looking packages and other devices must always be handled as the real thing.

``That's how we approach each time we roll out to a scene,'' Humphries said. ``We are well trained to detect these things and there isn't any feeling of frustration when the package or device turns out to be something other than a bomb.''

On Thursday, arson and explosive deputies descended on Mitchell Elementary School in Canyon Country after a bomb threat was called in at the site.

``Whether it's trash or a box containing a bomb, we have the training and want to be there,'' Humphries said.

Sheriff's deputies on the arson and explosives detail in Los Angeles County attend a hazardous material training school in Alabama and are given refresher courses twice a year, officials said. When assigned to the unit, a deputy is placed under the wing of an experienced superior which enables on-the-job training as well.

Humphries said Mulcahy acted properly, evacuating all but a few key people from the building.

A 500-foot perimeter was quickly established around the area, effectively closing Magic Mountain Parkway to motorists and passersby from Valencia Boulevard to Auto Center Drive for more than two hours.

``We don't want an untrained deputy or an unsuspecting citizen handling anything suspicious, anything,'' Humphries said.

``We had to go with the possibility that it was a real threat,'' Mulcahy said. ``The wind didn't blow it there, someone placed it there,'' he said.

Authorities said a mobile command unit was established for desk operators to handle emergency and other calls placed to the station.