Correction: Due to a reporting error, this post misidentified the congressman responsible for the letter on Saturday night's incident at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
A U.S. congressman wants answers from a federal agency about a possible meth-related explosion Saturday night at one of its Gaithersburg labs.
Rep. Lamar Smith, who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, sent a letter Wednesday to the Gaithersburg-based National Institute of Standards and Technology asking for a briefing on the incident.
Reports from various news outlets said the explosion in the lab on the campus happened Saturday night and a police officer for the agency was treated at a hospital and released.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Montgomery County police found chemicals consistent with the manufacture of methamphetamine at the site of the explosion.
According to a spokesperson for NIST, the agency police officer injured in the incident resigned.
The Associated Press reported the explosion may have been tied to the police officer, who has yet to be named or charged.
“If these initial reports are verified, the fact that this explosion took place at a taxpayer-funded NIST facility potentially endangering NIST employees is of great concern,” Smith wrote in a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
Smith also asked for the briefing on the incident to occur by next week and for weekly updates about the situation.
