WASHINGTON — Police are investigating a suspicious package that supposedly burned two adults in Frederick and forced an emergency room to stop admitting patients.
Around noon on Tuesday, two men arrived at Frederick Memorial Hospital complaining of burns and respiratory problems after they opened a package that came in the mail at a home on Military Road in Frederick, according to police.
The men brought the package with them to the hospital emergency room, prompting the emergency department to close down to new patients and reroute ambulances to other hospitals, said Lt. Clark Pennington, commander of the investigations division for the Frederick Police Department.
Decontamination tents were set up outside of the emergency room when the package arrived, according to The Associated Press.
The hospital emergency room reopened to new patients around 3 p.m., according to a hospital spokeswoman Melissa Lambdin. She said that the injuries the two men sustained in the incident were not life-threatening.
Operations were back to normal in the hospital on Tuesday afternoon, except for a small area of the emergency department, according to The Associated Press.
Emergency fire personnel were treating the situation as a hazmat situation. City police and fire officials were investigating to determine the origin of the package, Pennington said.
