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Fire forces evacuation of Senate office buildings |
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By Karissa Marcum
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Posted: 11/01/07 07:50 PM [ET] |
Fire forced hundreds of Hill staffers to evacuate from two Senate office buildings Wednesday afternoon, but no one was injured.
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Phillip Morse said the fire was reported shortly after 1 p.m. in the basement of the Hart Senate Office Building. Both Hart and the Dirksen Senate Office Building were evacuated.
Morse said it was unclear if the fire was set intentionally, and that an investigation will continue into the fire’s origin, including whether it is connected to Oct. 3 fires in the Dirksen and Hart buildings. He emphasized there was no reason to believe the fires were linked.
Four fires were reported on Oct. 3, three of which were found in women’s restrooms. This led Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider to describe the fires as “suspicious” at the time.
Employees waited in line to re-enter the offices after the scene was cleared at 1:40 p.m.
During the evacuation, Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer said his office utilized a remote check-in system to make sure all employees at the two buildings were accounted for. The program involves electronic check-in devices that have been in use for a year, he said.
Staffers can use their BlackBerrys or laptops to check in with the device so that officials can immediately receive the information on who has been evacuated. If they cannot check in electronically, staffers are encouraged to check in with officers or sergeant at arms employees at the scene.
“The program is set up to electronically indicate who has checked in and who has not,” Gainer said. “That way the police department gets a good sense of where people are.”
Gainer said each office also has a specific meeting place outside of the building to ensure everyone is accounted for. |
