El Segundo hotel near LAX evacuated by false meth report

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (KABC) -- An Embassy Suites hotel near Los Angeles International Airport was evacuated and streets were shut down after a false report of someone cooking meth inside a room Monday afternoon, officials said.

Officials began allowing hotel guests back into their rooms around 5:30 p.m. after the initial report of methamphetamine turned out to be untrue.

The incident began around 1:37 p.m. Monday, when a guest at the El Segundo hotel told management that someone was cooking meth inside his room.

The hotel was evacuated and streets near the hotel at 1400 Imperial Ave. were closed to the public.

Two police officers who responded to the incident and found drugs inside the room were overcome by fumes and transported to a local hospital, El Segundo police said.

After several hours of investigations by hazmat teams, it was determined that the substance inside the room was not meth.

Officers found ashes and a bag in a sink, according to Lt. Carlos Mendoza, with the LA IMPACT interagency task force.

Apparently someone in the room had opened up a cigarette lighter to take the butane and then used soap and cough syrup to burn and treat some marijuana.

The fumes from the marijuana-chemical mixture are what made the officers lightheaded but otherwise unharmed, Mendoza said.

Another substance found inside the room, a white powder, turned out to be beach sand. No arrests have been made.