On April 24, 1997, the District of Columbia Fire/EMS Department (DCFEMS) responded to the Washington, D.C. offices of B’nai B’rith, an international Jewish organization, for a suspicious package. The package had been mailed to B’nai B’rith and contained a Petri dish labeled with wording which led local emergency responders to suspect the package might contain Anthrax and Yersinia, both disease-causing bacteria that have been used as biological weapons. Several occupants of the building complained of dizziness and headaches, additional factors that indicated the possible presence of a chemical agent as well. The DCFEMS established a perimeter around the site where the package was located, attempted to protect occupants of the B’nai B’rith building by isolating them in place, established a command post, and set up hazardous material decontamination procedures. After consultation with numerous national agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Biosafety Branch, responders engaged in hazmat operations to secure the package and its contents, which were then sent to a federal laboratory in Bethesda, Maryland. Laboratory tests revealed that the contents of the package were nonhazardous.