HazMat teams investigate suspicious powdery substances at 2 Naples locations

jijaji · October 10, 2001

Tuesday, October 9, 2001

By GINA EDWARDS, gvedwards@naplesnews.com

MIREIDY FERNANDEZ, mmfernandez@naplesnews.com

Officials from local hazardous materials teams in Collier County responded to two separate anthrax scares Tuesday morning after employees found mail delivered by a private courier service covered with a white powdery substance.

Hazardous materials crew decontaminates a person a the Fifth Third Bank office on Tuesday. A powdery substance found in the building sparked the emergency. Romain Blanquart/Staff

At least 20 employees at the Fifth Third Bank at 4099 Ninth Street North (U.S. 41) and about 50 employees at the Cummings & Lockwood law firm at 3001 Ninth Street North were affected.

Employees at both locations discovered white substances in mail delivery packs there, authorities said. The substances haven't been confirmed as the deadly anthrax bacterium.

"You have to assume it's anthrax or something suspicious but it's probably nothing," Collier County Emergency Management Director Ken Pineau said.

FBI investigators on scene hoped to have the substance tested by late afternoon or evening. Mail at Fifth Third Bank was flown to the FBI lab in Tampa.

Fifth Third Bank workers called emergency dispatch at 9:28 a.m. after employees there discovered a white powdery substance covering envelopes of mail they were sorting.

Similarly, a white powdery substance was discovered in a mail delivery package at the Cummings & Lockwood law firm.

Emergency workers and law enforcement authorities detained a total of about 75 exposed people at both locations.

About two dozen people at Fifth Third were quarantined as part of procedures set in motion to deal with a potential anthrax scare. Hazardous material teams, in full protective blue suits, entered the building to decontaminate the roughly 25 employees who came in contact with the mail.

Inside their building, the bank workers had to strip down and get hosed off as part of the precautionary procedures. Dressed in blue wraps, they were taken to a staging area outside where emergency workers held up tarps to protect their privacy.

People waiting outside the Fifth Third Bank. Romain Blanquart/Staff

By noon, all of the Fifth Third employees had refused transport to area hospitals.

At the Cummings & Lockwood law firm, about 50 people potentially exposed to the substance were detained inside the building. Emergency workers from the North Naples fire department's Hazmat team put on biohazard suits and entered the building before noon.

Emergency officials received the call from Cummings & Lockwood at 10:21 a.m. Employees were stripped and decontaminated inside the building. The employees emerged from the building in blue hospital gowns and were taken to a tent set up outside.

No employees opted to go to the hospital, and many went home.

The local office of the FBI is located in the same building complex as Cummings & Lockwood, but officials at the scene said they have no reason to suspect that the FBI office was a target.

At the four-story Fifth Third building, Naples Realty closed for the day and employees evacuated.

Meanwhile, employees at the First National Bank at 8975 Harbour Drive were evacuated Tuesday afternoon because of its proximity to the affected site.

Pineau said nerves are frayed in the wake of the anthrax death in Boca Raton.

"I could drop a container of Sweet & Low and the whole building would be evacuated," Pineau said.

However, he added, authorities must take precautions for each incident.

Contact epfreeman@naplesnews.com , gvedwards@naplesnews.com and mmfernandez@naplesnews.com

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