A package addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ignited yesterday at a Washington, D.C. postal facility.
The package looked “similar” to the book-sized envelopes that detonated in Maryland on Thursday, officials said, but it was not immediately clear whether the incidents were related and whether the same person sent all three packages.
The Metropolitan Police Department received a call at 2:45 p.m. that a package had ignited in the 3300 block of V St. southeast, public information officer Lt. Nicholas Bruel told ABC News.
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The package was not opened and it wasn’t in the process of being opened. It ignited on its own and quickly burned out, FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin told ABC.
DC Metro Police Chief Cathy Lanier said “there was popping, smoking, a brief flash of fire and then it extinguished itself.”
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She described the device as “similar in nature to the packages found yesterday.”
No injuries were reported and the building was evacuated as a precautionary measure.
Lanier said extra protective measures were put into place in the district after the Maryland incident Thursday and that will continue to be the case.
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“Right now we don’t have any other packages but we’re not taking anything for granted,” she added.
U.S. postal service spokeswoman Irene Lericos said that the building is an annex that handles U.S. government mail.
FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials are on the scene and investigating the suspicious envelopes.
On Thursday, a pair of incendiary devices in small packages, including one addressed to the governor of Maryland, erupted within hours of each other inside two government office buildings in Maryland.
The detonations injured two people but there were no major injuries.
Those devices — similar in construction to ones recently mailed to embassies in Rome and in Greece — were described by one official as “terror vandalism,” that are “intended to scare, and hurt you a bit, but not kill.” Officials described them as powered by a small battery linked to an electric match and a switch.
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