Defense buildings remain closed after anthrax scare

Fears of an anthrax attack on Washington area mail centers were quieted Tuesday night as all tests for the biological substance turned up negative in what appears to be a false alarm.

The Pentagon's Remote Delivery Facility was evacuated and closed Monday after samples taken Thursday tested positive for anthrax. Hours later, the Skyline facility, a Falls Church, Va., office complex consisting of three buildings leased by the Defense Department, was shut down and workers locked inside after a mail sensor sounded an anthrax alarm.

The Postal Service's facility that handles government mail was closed Tuesday and about 200 workers were tested for anthrax and given a three-day regimen of antibiotics.

The Skyline complex and Pentagon mail center remained closed Wednesday afternoon for final testing, but on Tuesday night, the Fairfax County Health Department confirmed that the risk was minimal and that the Skyline building would open Thursday morning. Health officials stressed that the general public was never at risk of exposure.

A Defense Department spokesman said the Pentagon expected to reopen its Remote Delivery Facility Thursday morning and essential supplies delivered to the Pentagon are being screened elsewhere.

The Postal Service facility started moving mail at noon on Wednesday.

According to the Armed Forces Information Service, more than 70 tests for anthrax turned up negative after an initial overnight test on a sample from the Pentagon's Remote Delivery Facility turned up positive. Postal officials reported that all tests on their mail facility turned up negative.

Local politicians and emergency officials criticized the coordination between the Pentagon and local emergency crews. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., called for the House Government Reform Committee to hold hearings regarding the preliminary findings of anthrax that proved to be a false alarm.

According to a report in The Washington Post, the White House and other federal agencies were troubled that the Pentagon did not notify other government agencies more quickly about the possibility of anthrax in the mail system.

Several officials compared the response this week's anthrax scare to the events following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, where 22 people were infected with anthrax and five died. They cited a lack of coordination between various government agencies on the federal, state and local levels.

Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said all agencies and local officials were notified within an hour of the first alert. "We have a system that sends out an alert over a network," Flood said. "We made the proper notifications."

Flood said Fairfax County officials decided to close the Skyline building and keep workers there Tuesday because the FBI was treating the facility as a crime scene. He said the Remote Delivery Facility was evacuated because of test results from March 10, rather than an actual alarm being sounded, as was the case at the Skyline building.

Postal Service spokesman Gerry McKiernan said the agency was notified at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday about the first anthrax alert, nearly 24 hours after the Pentagon's mail facility was evacuated. McKiernan said by the time the Postal Service had gathered enough information to act, it was late in the afternoon. By 9 p.m. the agency's chief medical officer gave workers in the mail sorting facility antibiotics.

"For us, it is a false alarm," McKiernan said. "We're open. The Pentagon is not, but for us it's over. We don't have any employees that are ill, we have had the place thoroughly tested and there is nothing in there as far as the lab is concerned."

Virginia homeland security adviser George W. Foresman questioned whether the right systems and culture were in place in order for the agencies to share information.

"It calls into question, do we have the best systems in place particularly at these high profile sites like the Pentagon?" Foresman said. "We need to sit down and have an in-depth discussion and analysis on who was told what when … the bottom line is we know there's a problem."