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The Pentagon was placed on lockdown this Thursday after an incident involving hazardous materials was detected inside the building, according to a statement from Arlington County firefighters shared on social media and reported by Reuters.
The building's detection systems recorded an air quality issue that immediately triggered emergency protocols, resulting in the lockdown of floors two through five in corridors four to seven, with the evacuation of individuals in several of those areas, according to anonymous sources cited by CNN.
Sean Parnell, Pentagon spokesperson and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, issued an official statement this Thursday confirming the situation without revealing the exact nature of the threat.
"The Pentagon has sophisticated systems in place to ensure the safety of the building and its occupants. These systems have detected an air quality issue that requires precautionary measures until its significance is determined," Parnell noted on X.
The spokesperson added that the Department was implementing "standard protection protocols," including a shelter-in-place order for the affected area, and that response teams were in position to support the building's occupants.
Both the hazardous materials team from the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA) and the specialized team from the Arlington County Fire and Emergency Services Department in Virginia, which operates under a cooperative agreement with the facility, responded to the incident.
Anonymous sources cited by CNN indicated that additional air quality tests would take between one and two hours, and that the incident could be a false alarm or a precautionary response, with no confirmation of the presence of any actual hazardous substance.
No injuries or casualties were reported in connection with the incident.
The incident occurred on the same day that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was returning from a visit to the Guantanamo base and the Central Command in Tampa, Florida, where he issued direct warnings to the Cuban regime.
The Pentagon, home to the United States Department of Defense located in Arlington, Virginia, houses tens of thousands of military and civilian employees, and is one of the largest office buildings in the world.
High-profile government buildings in the United States are equipped with advanced air quality detection systems designed to respond to potential chemical or biological threats, which can trigger precautionary alerts even in situations that turn out to be false alarms, as occurred in 2023 with a substance found in the White House that Washington firefighters determined did not pose a threat.
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