Last Friday at about 10 o'clock in the morning the buildings fire alarm started going off. At first we just thought it was another test but then they announced over the loud speaker that it was not a drill and we needed to immediately evacuate the building. So everyone started to head down stairs. Since the building had had a practice drill a few months ago we all knew what to do and headed for our assigned meeting spots to check in with the person in charge of our offices, Sheri. As the flow of people started to die down we noticed our sales manager, Jan was no where to be seen. I had to track down someone from the building to go back in the building to check if Jan had made it out. When he came back out they told me that Jan was not in the office so everyone started to search for him. Finally the owner, John showed up and said that he saw him walking down to the parking garage apparently he had gone to his car and left.The FBI finally told us that there was a white powder discovered in a piece of hate mail. The building was going to be shut down form anywhere to an hour to the whole day. So, people began to leave and find something to occupy the time while we waited to find out an update. However, there was still one person we had forgotten about. Our engineer who had gone to the roof to do some work on the stations new satellite. Me & Sheri quickly walked over to the FBI and told them the situation. Eventually everyone got out safe. The building was closed for about 2 1/2 hours before they let us back in. I think it is agreed upon by the other building tenants that from now on the FBI should start opening their mail in the afternoon around 3 o'clock so if there is an issue we can all just call it a day.
Below is the story from KSL (the local news station) website.
Employees who work in the FBI building in downtown Salt Lake were evacuated this morning because of the possible threat of a deadly chemical. A federal employee discovered the suspicious substance while opening mail. The building was reopened this afternoon, but for a time this morning, HAZMAT teams were the only ones allowed in so they could remove the white, powdery substance that was discovered inside an envelope on the 12th floor."The fire alarm went off. No one indicated that it was a drill, and so we took it seriously and we came outside the building," explained Ken Cluff, who works in the FBI building. Mark Dean, who also works in the building, said, "It doesn't appear to be a fire. There's no smoke or anything like that. But they don't seem to act like it's some kind of a drill. They seem to act, like, serious about it." It wasn't a drill, and it definitely wasn't a fire. It was instead a suspicious substance found by a federal employee who was opening incoming mail. The mail was opened in a specialized container, which is procedure for all mail that comes in. The employee was wearing a specialized hood and gloves to protect himself from hazardous material when he noticed white powder fall out of a piece of hate mail.
"The employee immediately followed procedure. [He] withdrew from there, took the gloves off and immediately went in, closed the door and contained the mail to the specific filter and vent that works this type of material," explained FBI spokesman Juan Baccera. Scott Freitag, spokesman for the Salt Lake City Fire Department, said, "The employee was reported to not have any powder on him whatsoever, as he was using his procedures to use the device to open mail." Authorities say those procedures ensured the safety of all of the employees inside the building at the time. "We feel we have contained it. We feel we have followed our safety procedures as they are outlined," Bacerra said. The powder-type substance was taken out of the building by HAZMAT crews for testing. The FBI says results of those tests will not come back for 48 hours. The agency is also looking into where the piece of mail came from.
2 comments:
Man I would be a bit scared if it were me.
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