05:06 PM PST on Friday, November 18, 2005

By ANTONIA GIEDWOYN, kgw.com Staff

An anthrax scare triggered by a suspicious envelope mailed to the Multnomah Building in southeast Portland prompted a quarantine of county workers for several hours Friday before a hazardous materials team found the threat to be a hoax.

KGW photo

The scene outside the Multnomah Building.

The envelope contained a blank tax form with a post-it note stating it was tainted with anthrax and spit, police said. There was no actual powder inside the envelope, which had been opened in the taxation and assessment office on the first floor.

Six or seven employees believed to have been exposed to the envelope were quarantined and the mail was taken to a lab for testing. The results for a hazardous material came back negative.

“Well at some point, when nothing comes of them, I think people start to kind of roll their eyes and then you also deal with the inconvenience, but you realize safety is first," said county employee Shirlee Robertson.

Maintenance workers shut down the building's ventilation system as a precaution and employees were asked to remain at their desks and told that if they left the building, they would not be allowed back in.

The incident happened about 10 a.m. Police launched a criminal investigation.

The Multnomah Building is located at 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Traffic on the boulevard was restricted.

The building houses many county offices, including the offices for county commissioners. It also houses marriage license applications and it's where county property taxes are paid.

(KGW reporter Kyle Iboshi contributed to this article.)