Woman in standoff was mixing cleaning supplies

A 50-year-old woman was mixing household cleaning supplies before police surrounded her Beacon Hill apartment during a five-hour standoff that led to the evacuation of several buildings behind the State House, officials said yesterday.

Firefighters were called to a Temple Street building about 9 p.m. Tuesday after neighbors complained about a strong smell of ammonia coming from a fourth-floor apartment.

The woman had poured the chemicals on the floor and barricaded herself in the apartment, police said.

Neighbors identified the woman as a former chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pamela Dumas Serfes, a spokeswoman for MIT, said authorities had contacted her about the woman, who worked as a laboratory associate at the university's department of biological engineering from 1999 to 2006. Because no charges had been filed by last night, the Globe is withholding the woman's name.

She had most recently worked as a lab technician with an MIT team researching heparin, the cancer-fighting drug that had been recalled after tainted batches had come in from China, according to information from the US Patent and Trademark Office website. The team was awarded a patent last week for a new kind of heparin.

Zachary Shriver, who worked briefly with the woman on the heparin team, said, "While I was working with her, it was fine."

After hours of negotiation with a SWAT unit, the woman surrendered early yesterday and was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was being evaluated, authorities said.

"It turned out to be household items such as shampoo, floor wax, and dish detergent," said Steve MacDonald, spokesman for the Boston Fire Department. "She was squirting, spraying these items on herself and on the floor and furniture in the apartment and mixing it all up."

Several bottles and boxes of Tide laundry detergent, along with one bottle of Mop & Glo, were scattered throughout the apartment, alongside disheveled furniture and on top of broken glass.

Firetrucks lined the street Tuesday night, and officials cordoned off access to the buildings.

A team of hazardous materials specialists responded, and natural gas service to the building was cut off. Only officials wearing gas masks were allowed in the area.

Globe correspondent Padraig B. Shea contributed to this report.