00:06The Pentagon, the most secure office building on the planet, was just put on lockdown.
00:13Hazmat teams in full gas masks rushed in.
00:16Corridors were sealed.
00:18Hundreds of personnel were told, do not move.
00:21This is what happened today, inside the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense.
00:26On Thursday afternoon, sensors inside the Pentagon triggered an alert.
00:31Not a drill, not a test.
00:33The building's own sophisticated air quality monitoring systems detected something, and that was enough to set everything in motion.
00:41By 2.40 p.m. Eastern, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency's Hazmat team was already on the ground,
00:48backed by Arlington County Fire Department's Hazardous Materials Unit and EMS personnel.
00:53Multiple floors and corridors, specifically corridors 4 through 7, floors 2 through 5 in the A-rings, were locked down
01:01or evacuated.
01:03Pentagon Chief Spokesman Sean Parnell addressed it directly.
01:06He said the building's systems detected an air quality issue, that standard protection protocols are being executed,
01:13including a shelter-in-place order, and that response teams are in place.
01:17What he did not say is what the substance is, where it came from, or whether anyone is in danger.
01:24No injuries have been reported as of this video, and officials are stressing this response is precautionary.
01:30Here's the thing.
01:31The Pentagon doesn't trigger a multi-agency hazmat response over nothing.
01:36These sensors are designed to detect chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.
01:42The fact that they activated is significant, even if the final answer turns out to be benign.
01:47No specific substance has been identified publicly.
01:51Testing of air and surface samples is ongoing.
01:54Officials have not linked this to any external threat, any explosion, or any security breach.
01:59But they haven't ruled anything out either.
02:01To be fair, incidents like this do happen.
02:04Sensor alerts at government buildings sometimes trace back to something routine, a cleaning chemical, a malfunctioning HVAC system, a false
02:12positive.
02:13Similar alarms at mail handling facilities have resolved without confirmed hazards.
02:18But you treat every single one as real until proven otherwise, especially here.
02:24The situation is contained and under active investigation.
02:27The DOD, PFPA, and Arlington County Fire are expected to update as testing concludes.
03:01The DOD, PFPA, and Arlington County Fire.
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