ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Maryland officials say two employees opening mail at separate state office buildings had their fingers burned when they opened packages that emitted smoke and fire.


The employees were not badly hurt. State police spokesman Greg Shipley says one package was addressed to Gov. Martin O'Malley and the other to the state transportation department.

Mailrooms at other state offices across Maryland are being quarantined until it can be determined if any other packages have been sent.

Shipley says the packages did not explode but there was a flash of fire, smoke and a smell with each.

State officials initially said the packages exploded, but later said there were no blasts.

State police spokesman Greg Shipley said mailrooms at state offices across Maryland were being quarantined until it could be determined if any other packages had been sent.

One package was opened around 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Jeffrey Building, a state office building just blocks from the State House in downtown Annapolis, and another 15 minutes later at the Maryland Department of Transportation building in Hanover, near Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport.

Shipley said the packages were small, about the size of a book.

"In both instances when the small packages were opened, there was a dissemination of smoke and a smell, that's the best description we have right now," he said.

Phil McGowan, a spokesman for the Annapolis mayor, said fire units were called to the mailroom of the Jeffrey Building after an employee there was injured. State police said the employee's fingers were singed. He refused medical treatment.

The Jeffrey Building houses the state Department of Veterans Affairs, the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and the Maryland Secretary of State's office, as well as the mail room for the governor's office.

The FBI's joint terrorism task force was assisting in the investigation, the state police spokesman said, adding that the state fire marshal and a number of other law enforcement agencies also responded to the two scenes.

A U.S. Homeland Security Department official said the department was aware of the incidents and monitoring them.

New Jersey state police also said they had notified agencies across the Garden State about what had happened, saying it was part of normal protocol when such incidents occur. The New Jersey agencies were advised to be "extra vigilant" in handling mail and packages.

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Associated Press Writers Alex Dominguez and Kasey Jones in Baltimore, Brian Witte in Atlanta, and Eileen Sullivan and Alicia Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.

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