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Chemical at U.S. Capitol Resembled VX
U.S. Capitol Police said yesterday that they initially feared a false alarm Wednesday at the Russell Senate Office Building was a VX nerve agent attack, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, Feb. 9). Capitol Police chief Terrance Gainer said that the first sensor reading “bore a striking resemblance to a nerve agent.” That led to the evacuation of about 200 people to an underground garage. Gainer said that nontoxic chemicals in lumber recently taken into the building might have set off the alarm. “The experts will be doing a lot more analysis of what the heck it is,” he said. The police chief added that his officers were “100 percent more prepared” than they were during the anthrax mailings of 2001. However, there is room for improvement, as five people were discovered inside the building after the evacuation. “I'm trying to ascertain whether we failed to get the message to them, or they failed to heed our message,” Gainer said. An ABC News spokeswoman said two camera crew members were among the five, and had been placing equipment in the attic. “These guys didn’t hear a thing,” she said. This is not the first time sensors in the Capitol have yielded false alarms. Chemical signatures of weapons often match everyday products such as cleaners and paint thinner. The chemical signature on Wednesday, however, closely matched VX nerve agent. “This was a unique one to us,” Gainer said (Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post, Feb. 10).
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