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A suspicious package that was brought to the Berkeley Public Safety Building at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way this afternoon - temporarily forcing police and fire employees to shelter in place - was determined not to be dangerous, a fire official said. 

Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief Donna McCracken said a citizen who found a package on his doorstep that contained suspicious liquid brought it to the Public Safety Building at about 3:30 p.m. 

Police and fire employees who work at the building were then ordered to shelter in place and the sidewalk in front of the building was closed while the Fire Department's hazardous materials unit and the Police Department's bomb squad responded, she said. 

But authorities determined that the package doesn't contain hazardous materials and isn't a bomb and the order to shelter in place was lifted at 4:30 p.m., according to McCracken. 

The Police Department took possession of the package and is now evaluating it to determine exactly what it contains, McCracken said.