The University’s Office of Environmental Health & Safety was evacuated Tuesday at about noon by University and Virginia state police, as well as HAZMAT officials and fire officials, after a suspicious letter was delivered to the building, University Police Lieut. Melissa Fielding said.
Fielding said the letter was identified as suspicious based on the writing on the envelope as well the envelope’s unknown contents. The letter was addressed to the University of Virginia and did not contain a specific address, Fielding said.
Fielding said the letter was brought to the Office of Environmental Health & Safety for testing at the laboratory and was found not to contain any powders, spores or other hazardous materials.
Ralph Allen, director of the Office of Environmental Health & Safety, said the building, which is located near Slaughter Recreation Center, was closed from 12:05 p.m. until after 8 p.m. He noted that several employees had to remain outside and wait for alternate transportation because they were not permitted back into the building to retrieve their belongings. Allen added that no serious emergencies came about as a result of this incident.
Fielding acknowledged that some may have been troubled by yesterday’s events but defended the evacuation.
“It’s just better to handle it that way and inconvenience some folks as opposed to have something more serious happen ... If you let people into a potentially contaminated area you have a bigger emergency in that respect,” Fielding said. “The fortunate side ... is that no one was hurt.”
Allen also commended the actions of police.
“They followed their protocol and everything was done safely,” Allen said. “It turned out to be very good practice for everyone.”
Allen added that after several envelopes with powder were sent to banks last week, people are nervous about potentially suspicious materials.
Fielding said this was not the first suspicious letter received by the University and Tuesday’s evacuation also was not the first of its kind but could not comment as to the frequency of these types of incidents.
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