Posion attack scare at Washington, D.C., Maryland Metrorail stations
“Pest abatement” contractor chooses to do his work Sunday afternoon rather than at midnight, leading to dozens of dead birds on Metro stations’ platforms; stations closed, FBI’s antiterror units dispatched
This was not a case of the canary in the mine shaft, although for while some thought it was: A mistake by a Metro contractor led to the shutdown of three Metrorail stations in Maryland this weekend and prompted an investigation by the FBI and local hazardous-materials crews after the contractor spread commercial pest poison at the wrong time of day. At least sixty birds which ingested the poison, mostly sparrows and starlings, were found dead at six Metrorail stations before the transit agency discovered that its contractor had put out the poison and failed to remove the dead birds as part of the cleanup. The stations were eventually opened to the public afte the all-clear was given by scientists from the near-by National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The Washington Post’s Lena Sun reports that as reports of dead birds kept coming in during Sunday afternoon, officials from the FBI’s joint terrorism task force and NIH joined in the investigation spread out to the stations where th dead bidrs were found, eventuaklly concluding that “the birds ingested some sort of poison,” Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asato said. “The public was never in danger. We do believe it was a mistake on the part of our contractor.”
Metro officials said that “pest abatement” should take place at night, and that the contractor is supposed to wait and pick up the dead birds before morning operations begin. The pest abatement “doesn’t typically happen on Sunday at 12 noon,” said Asato.
