Package ignites at D.C. post office

By Washington Post editors

Editor's Note: Explicit language below.

FBI is on the scene| Location handles mail for federal agencies| Text of note from the Maryland devices

A package "ignited" Friday afternoon in a U.S. postal facility in the District near the Maryland border, D.C. police said.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said a postal employee flagged down a police car that was driving in the 3300 block of V St NE shortly after 2 p.m. Lanier said the employee told the officer that they had a package similar to packages found in Maryland Thursday. The package was "popping, smoking with a brief flash of fire and then it extinguished itself," Lanier said.

No one was injured.

The package is being handled by the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force and will be taken to FBI headquarters in Quantico for analysis, Lanier said.

The facility, at 3300 V St. NE, is a processing facility only – meaning customers cannot enter the location to send/receive mail. Two shifts are run through the facility, which employs between 50 to 100 workers, said Ray Robinson, executive vice president of Local 140 of the American Postal Workers Union.



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The suspicious ignition comes one day after two book-sized packages ignited at Maryland government mailrooms, causing minor injuries.

Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) had been told that the return address on the package sent to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) Thursday contained a return address that was for a "parking facility in D.C." said his spokeswoman, Heather Molino. Ruppersberger had been briefed as part of his role on the House Select on Intelligence and also received information from Maryland law enforcement sources, Molino told reporter Mary Pat Flaherty.

Molino said the office did not know if the same address was on the second Maryland package and had not received information late Friday afternoon about the incident in the District.

Law enforcement officials Friday said the suspicious package in the District is linked to those in Maryland.

"This package is described as very similar in nature to the packages recovered yesterday," Lanier said.

According to a postal inspection source, Friday's incendiary package was addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Lanier said she would not address who the package was addressed to.

Napolitano was told about the incident as part of routine security briefings, according to a Homeland Security spokeswoman. DHS is closely monitoring the situation, the spokeswoman said.

After the Maryland incidents Thursday there was increased security at all processing facilities, said Peter Rendina, assistant inspector in charge of the Washington division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Postal Inspectors, which are the agency's law enforcement arm, were out at processing centers screening mail, and employees were given a refresher Friday morning on what suspicious aspects of the mail to look out for, Rendina said

Lanier said that there were "protective measures" put in place throughout the region but did not elaborate.

"All of us in this region understand that incidents that happen in one jurisdiction are not necessarily tied to that jurisdiction," Lanier said.

It was not clear whether the processing facility would reopen Saturday.

The FBI said federal terrorism investigators were responding, but did not characterize the incendiary mailings as a terrorist incident, saying only that the matter is under investigation.

The task force’s role includes evidence collection and a response unit for incidents in the nation’s capital, said Lindsay Godwin, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

“I think until we can rule out anything, we have to have all of our assets involved,” Godwin said.

“I don’t believe other facilities have been shut down or evacuated. To our knowledge this is the only incident today,”’ she said.

Godwin said the investigation is being led by the FBI's Baltimore Field Office, assisted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service , in coordination with and the Metropolitan Police Department , the FBI-led JTTF and the bureau’s Baltimore and Washington field offices .



-- Staff writers Paul Duggan, Theola Labbe-DeBose, Spencer S. Hsu, Ed O'Keefe and Mary Pat Flaherty contributed to this report.





5:04 p.m.

At least one and possibly two packages or envelopes "ignited" Friday afternoon in a U.S. postal facility in the District near the Maryland border, D.C. police said.

The incendiary package was addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, according to a postal inspection source, reporter Ed O'Keefe tells us.

The facility, 3300 V St. NE, is a processing facility only – meaning customers cannot enter the location to send/receive mail.

According to a senior postal inspector, the device found at the Northeast Washington post office contained a device similar to the two found Thursday in Maryland.

There are no immediate details on the incident or how many people were in the facility at the time. The facility has been evacuated, according to an inspection service spokesman.

UPDATE:





4:29 p.m.

According to a senior postal inspector, the device found at the Northeast D.C. post office contained a device similar to the two found Thursday in Maryland.

-- Ed O'Keefe

4:23 p.m.

FBI agents are also on scene, and expect to send evidence to the FBI laboratory at Quantico for analysis, said Katherine Schweit, spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington Field Office.

She added that the FBI has no reports of any similar incidents today in the Washington area.

-- Spencer S. Hsu



4:12 p.m.

At least one and possibly two packages or envelopes "ignited" Friday afternoon in a U.S. postal facility in the District near the Maryland border, D.C. police said.

The incident occurred about 2:45 p.m. at the facility in the 3300 block of V Street NE, off New York Avenue near the D.C.-Maryland line, said Officer Hugh Carew, a police spokesman. He said no injuries were reported and that law-enforcement explosives experts were at the scene.



The suspicious ignition comes one day after two book-sized packages ignited at Maryland government mailrooms, causing minor injuries.



Two packages received by Maryland's governor and transportation secretary that ignited when they were opened Thursday contained this note. This image is a reproduction provided by police. (Maryland State Police)

There are no immediate details on the incident or how many people were in the facility at the time. The facility has been evacuated, according to an inspection service spokesman.



“We are working aggressively to determine whether the situation is related or involved to anything else that we’ve been working on in the last two days,” said Postal Inspection Service spokesman Mike Romano.



The V Street location screens and handles mail and packages sent to federal government agencies. It was set up in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and 2001 anthrax scare.

D.C. fire and police and inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are responding to an incident involving a suspicious package at a U.S. Postal Service facility at 3300 V St. NE.

There are no immediate details on the incident or whether anyone was injured or how many people were in the facility at the time. The facility has been evacuated, according to a inspection service spokesman.

-- Paul Duggan

D.C. fire and police and inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are responding to an incident involving a suspicious package at a U.S. Postal Service facility at 3300 V St. NE.

There are no immediate details on the incident or whether anyone was injured or how many people were in the facility at the time. The facility has been evacuated, according to a inspection service spokesman.



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“We are working aggressively to determine whether the situation is related or involved to anything else that we’ve been working on in the last two days, said Postal Inspection Service spokesman Mike Romano.

The location screens and handles mail and packages sent to federal government agencies. It was set up in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 2001 anthrax scare.

On Thursday, separate packages containing incendiary devices and addressed to Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and his secretary of transportation flashed, smoked and produced an odor when they were opened, causing minor injuries to two employees and putting officials around the Washington region on alert.

-- Ed O'Keefe

3:23 p.m.

WTOP is reporting that at least one package ignited at a Northeast D.C. postal facility.

Law enforcement officials are looking into a possible incendiary parcel at a Brentwood Post Northeast D.C. post office, according to a city official.

The post office is at 900 Brentwood Rd. NE.

An alert by District government said there is police activity in the area of the post office. V Street NE is closed between Bladensburg Road and South Dakota Avenue NE.