Prince William Hospital ER closed temporarily due to hazmat incident

Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue’s HAZMAT team was dispatched to Prince William Hospital in Manassas after two Federl Express workers entered the hospital’s emergency room on Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at approximately 11:15 a.m., stating they had been exposed to an unknown powdery substance.

According to Kim Hylander, public infomation specialist with Prince William County’s Departmemt of Fire and Rescue, hazmat technicians, upon arrival, were informed the Federal Express employees were preparing to deliver packages in the K-Mart Plaza area on Sudley Road when they noticed the powdery substance spewing from one of the packages.  The employees immediately left the scene with the package and drove to the emergency room. 

Upon entering the emergency room, FedEx employees informed hospital personnel of the incident. 911 was called and the HAZMAT unit was dispatched.  The hospital proceeded by conducting a precautionary decontamination of the FedEx workers and initiating closure of its emergency room; diverting transports to other area hospitals, Hylander said in a news release.

As a precautionary measure, the hazmat team set up a safety zone, enclosing the area surrounding the vehicle in which the two workers had arrived.  Hazmat technicians entered the vehicle to assess, retrieved a suspicious package, and began abstracting samples of the unknown substance, according to Hylander. As further details unfolded, fire and rescue units proceeded to the K-mart Plaza and taped off the area surrounding the FedEx truck to establish a safety area until the type of substance was determined. 

Tests revealed the substance non-hazardous, according to the PWC Fire and Rescue spokesman. The incident was cleared and the emergency room was reopened, she added.