Alarm Evacuates Senate Building

About 200 people, including about a dozen senators, were evacuated from the Russell Senate Office Building last night after a sensor in the attic indicated that a nerve agent was present. It later proved to be a false alarm.

In a dramatic incident that served as a jarring reminder of post-Sept. 11, 2001, security concerns, the evacuees, including a senator's 2-year-old grandson, were quarantined in a nearby government-building garage for almost three hours until at least two tests came up negative.

"We're all fine," Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said soon after he emerged from the garage around 9:40 p.m. "Everyone was fine, and [we] got a little better acquainted."

The senators in the garage included Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Republicans Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Mike Enzi of Wyoming. Identities of the other senators and evacuees were not available.

None of those evacuated reported any physical symptoms, authorities said.

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman, said the sensor sounded about 6:30 p.m., prompting Capitol Police to usher those still in the building into the garage across Delaware Avenue NE.

"I was in my office" when the alert went off, Hagel said. "Phone calls were made. Police started moving up and down the halls,'' getting people to leave the building. "It was a good course of action," he said.

Coy Knobel, press secretary for Enzi, said that senators' offices are equipped with a communications device that can notify them of safety alerts. As it beeped in Enzi's office, the senator's wife, daughter-in-law, grandson and some staffers were there because "it was a little before 5 p.m. Wyoming time," Knobel said.

"This kind of thing happens," he said. "We just evacuate."

Hazmat teams from the Capitol Police and D.C. Fire Department rushed to the scene on Constitution Avenue NE. FBI agents and D.C. police also responded. Several ambulances and firetrucks idled as investigators in white protective hazmat suits entered and exited the building. Part of the Russell building was cordoned off with police tape.

Hours later, even as officials announced that no contamination had been detected, it was not clear what had triggered the sensor. Schneider said that a cleaning agent may have caused the activation. The attic, which contains some offices -- although none for senators -- also is used for storage.

Hagel praised the police response.