Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Update: Hazmat situation at NIST in Gaithersburg

Updated at 5:10 PM:

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue personnel assisted in the response to a hazmat incident at the National Institute of Standards in Gaithersburg this morning.

The as-yet-unspecified hazardous material was reportedly confined to a laboratory area. That particular building was evacuated as a precaution, MCFRS spokesperson Pete Piringer said.

MCFRS hazmat crews consulted with NIST's own fire chief and personnel on the situation. Ultimately, a county bomb squad robot was brought in to contain and secure the unidentified substance.

As of this update, NIST itself has only described the material as a "contained chemical hazard."

Hopefully we will find out at some point just what the hazardous material is, and what happened in there. I will update this as soon as that information is available.
Photos by Pete Piringer

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