GILLETTE, Wyo. — The Campbell County Courthouse was closed and evacuated for a possible “hazmat release,” the Campbell County Government Facebook page announced late Tuesday morning. Following that initial Facebook post, the county sent out a press release providing more information on the incident.
Shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, the courthouse received notice of the potential exposure and evacuated the building as part of its standard emergency procedures for such an event.
Ten people were identified as having possible exposure, and one of the ten was sent to the hospital as a precautionary measure, according to the release. The National Guard Civil Support Team from Cheyenne has been requested to assist with sampling material from the incident.
Hazmat, short for “hazardous materials,” generally refers to materials or substances that are potentially harmful to human health, such as explosives, toxic chemicals or radioactive materials, according to the Department of Homeland Security. No mention was made in the press release of what kind of substance or material people were exposed to in the courthouse.
This is a developing story. Information will be updated as it becomes available.
Update, 2:09 p.m.
In a phone call, Campbell County Public Information Officer Leslie Perkins declined to comment further on what type of material was present, as there was no way to confirm what it was until after testing had been completed.
“We don’t want to give out any speculative or incorrect information; we want to make sure anything we put out to the public is accurate and precise. We’re not going to speculate on things until we know,” Perkins said.
The Civil Support Team was expected to arrive from Cheyenne at 2 p.m. Further information would be released following their testing, though Perkins did not have an estimate for how long the team’s work would take. No updated information was available for the one exposed person who went to the hospital.
Update, 4:29 p.m.
A press release sent out at 4:15 p.m. has little new information to provide on the situation. The substance remains unidentified, and the Civil Support Team is still conducting their inspection of the courthouse building. The Civil Support Team will provide more information once its inspection is complete, the release said.
Update, 6 p.m.
Further details have been released regarding the hazmat incident. From a press release sent to media at 5:41 p.m., the timeline of events now includes more information. The initial call reporting a potential hazmat exposure was made at approximately 11 a.m., with emergency responders on scene at 11:10. The Campbell County Fire Department and Gillette Police Department “established control of the scene” for initiating emergency protocols.
In addition to evacuating the building, the air handling system within the building was shut down. Those potentially exposed were held in quarantine until the substance was identified, and the one direct exposure was sent to Campbell County Health for treatment and has been released, according to the most recent press release.
After entering the building at about 4:45 p.m., the Civil Support Team made a presumptive identification of the substance, and indicated it was a negative result for “highly contagious hazardous material,” the remainder of which will be sent to the State of Wyoming Department of Health lab for further testing.
The updates shed no light on how exactly the substance entered the building, however. “Due to circumstances surrounding the hazardous material entering the Campbell County Courthouse and ongoing investigation, details on how the incident started are limited,” the press release read.
Current plans are for the courthouse to open back up on Wednesday morning.
