Suspicious package addressed to Janet Napolitano ignites in D.C. post office

This post will be updated.

Comment

The scene outside the V Street Annex after a package ignited inside. (Photo: ABC7)

D.C. police confirm a package ignited this afternoon at a U.S. Post Office on V Street NE known as the V Street Annex. Sources also confirmed that a second suspicious package was found at the facility, but it did not ignite. Police reported there were no injuries.

D.C. police Chief Cathy Lanier described the package in Friday's incident as "similar in nature to the packages that were recovered yesterday in Maryland."

According to Lanier, the package began "popping, smoking, and [there was] a brief flash of fire and then it extinguished itself."

Lanier said the the postal worker in D.C. never opened the package. Sources said it ignited after it was thrown in a bin and then burned itself out, ABC7 reports.

CNN and Politico reported the package was addressed to Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano. Lanier declined to confirm that when asked.


View Larger Map

The post office, set up after Sept. 11, 2001, deals with mail and packages sent to federal government agencies, according to the Washington Post.

Pete Rendina, the assistant postal inspector in charge for the national capital region, said the postal inspectors are out at locations screening mail, and that postal workers have been briefed on suspicious characteristics to look for when handling mail.

Rendina said there would be no delay in mail service because of the added precautions.

Lanier said it was an ongoing joint investigation of D.C. police, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and U.S. postal inspectors.

"Every possible precaution" was being taken, Lanier said.

V Street NE is closed between Bladensburg Road and South Dakota Avenue NE.

TBD is tracking this and other suspicious packages in and around D.C. at Tumblr The Suspicious Package.

No comments