BBC News
Pentagon floors on lockdown after 'hazardous materials' incident
The building's systems detected an "air quality issue", a Pentagon spokesperson said, prompting a response from hazmat teams.
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The Hill News
Pentagon on lockdown over air quality issue
Center
The Pentagon went into lockdown Thursday over an air quality issue, prompting the department to execute a shelter-in-place order for the affected area. “The Pentagon has sophisticated systems to ensure the safety of the building and its occupants. Those systems have detected an air quality issue necessitating precautionary measures until we determine its significance. The Department…
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Found 8 stories
WSJ.com : U.S. News
Pentagon Lockdown Is Lifted After False Alarm
Almost half the building was affected as emergency services assessed the situation.
Center
Latest Political News on Fox News
No hazard found after 'severe' Pentagon alert sparks emergency response
Pentagon safety systems detected an air quality issue Thursday, prompting a shelter-in-place order but no hazard was found.
Right
NewsNation
Pentagon on lockdown due to 'air quality issue'
Officials ordered a shelter-in-place for affected areas and hazmat teams are on site.
Center
Bloomberg Politics
Air Quality Alert Prompts Partial Shelter in Place at Pentagon
Hazmat crews and emergency medical teams descended on the Pentagon on Thursday after an air-quality alert prompted a shelter-in-place order for part of the iconic Defense Department headquarters.
Center
Washington Examiner
Pentagon evacuated over ‘air quality issue’ with hazmat team deployed
Several floors of the Pentagon were evacuated over an “air quality issue” that necessitated the deployment of a hazmat team. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told the Washington Examiner in a statement that a shelter-in-place order had been issued for employees and that response teams were in place to assist. “The Pentagon has sophisticated systems to […]
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Raw Story
Chaos as Pentagon suddenly locked down by hazmat teams in gas masks
Pentagon police are in gas masks and full chemical gear Thursday as a hazmat team locks down floors 2 through 5 of the massive complex.Floors 2 through 5 in corridors 4 through 7 have been locked down, and other floors have been evacuated, three sources told CNN. The Pentagon Force Protection Agency's hazardous materials response team is on scene alongside the Arlington County Fire Department."The Department is executing standard protection protocols, including a shelter-in-place order for the affected area," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. Systems within the Pentagon, he added, "have detected an air quality issue necessitating precautionary measures until we determine its significance."An internal security message obtained by CNN offered a rare glimpse inside the response — and a curious instruction to rattled occupants."This additional testing could take one to two hours. Response teams are in place and ready to support building occupants if necessary. You may observe response personnel from multiple agencies and precautionary measures taking place in the center courtyard. Please do not interpret these activities," the message read.Retired Col. Cedric Leighton, a former Pentagon official, flagged a particular danger for some workers on CNN."There are certain facilities within the Pentagon that are windowless facilities, so the only air supply that they're going to get is from the air handling system that is in the Pentagon," Leighton warned.Arlington Fire & EMS confirmed on X that its hazardous materials team is operating at the Pentagon "during a hazardous materials incident," posting 18 minutes before the Pentagon's public acknowledgment.Tens of thousands of people work inside the building. The full scope of how many have been locked down or evacuated remains unclear.This is a developing story.
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Raw Story
Pentagon evacuated as hazmat teams swarm — but the real danger was missed
The Pentagon was locked down Thursday and partially evacuated after a hazardous materials alarm triggered a full emergency response, gas masks, hazmat teams, the works. Multiple floors and corridors were locked down and others evacuated before sources confirmed to CNN it was a false alarm. Officers in chemical suits rushed through corridors, protecting a building from nothing.Fitting, really. Because Pete Hegseth has been pulling false alarms at the Pentagon since the moment he walked through its doors.Hegseth was sworn in on January 25, 2025, as the 29th Secretary of Defense, after the Senate deadlocked 50-50 and Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote. Everyone knew he’d be a disaster, a metaphorical hazard human who wreaked havoc on our nation’s defense.That’s why the squeaker of a confirmation was a warning. What followed has been a systematic evacuation of experience, dignity, and any pretense of seriousness.He started with the people. In February 2025, Hegseth fired Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first female chief of naval operations, and recommended that General Charles “CQ” Brown, the second African American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, be removed for his focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. That decision left no women in the top ranks of military leadership. It didn’t stop there. Hegseth intervened to stop the promotions of four Army officers, two Black men and two female soldiers, who were on track to become one-star generals.It was highly unusual for a defense secretary to intervene. Scratch that. It was a racist and misogynistic move by the defense secretary.And he did it again last week, personally intervening to remove numerous highly decorated Black and female Navy service members from military promotion lists, preventing them from advancing to one-star general or admiral. The pattern is impossible to ignore: the only generals welcome in Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon are straight, white, and male. Everyone else gets evacuated.Then came the language. He replaced diplomatic and peace-driven messaging with rude, macho and warmongering bloviating. His chest-thumping (not to be confused with his chest presses), testosterone-drenched vocabulary of a man auditioning for a B-war movie rather than running the world’s most powerful military. His garbage tongue wagging about “Warrior ethos.” “Lethal.” “Annihilation.” “Unleash overwhelming and punishing violence.” He replaced strong and bold leadership with insecure and dubious chest-thumping. In the single most embarrassing moment in modern Pentagon history, Hegseth summoned 800 generals and admirals from around the world to Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30, 2025 for an unprecedented and needless gathering where he dressed them down like a potty-mouth, crazed football coach. Pacing back and forth in front of a giant American flag, Hegseth declared it “completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals” in the Pentagon. He railed against “dudes in dresses,” “climate change worship,” and “fat” soldiers, rattling off a long list of culture war grievances before the assembled brass. Men and women who had served in combat zones across the globe, who had commanded forces, buried colleagues, and carried the genuine weight of war, sat and listened to a lowly and combustible former Fox News host tell them they weren’t skinny enough.His garbage tongue again wagged, bragging about his plan to “intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country” and how America would no longer be constrained by what he called “stupid rules of engagement.” Hegseth talks like someone who has a screw loose, and is so insecure about himself that he tries to sound like a leading character from an action movie versus rather than somebody with the decorum of a defense secretary.Retired generals called the speech “shocking” and “offensive.” It was not a warrior’s address. It was a Fox & Friends segment with a live studio audience of four-star generals.Of course, all of this preening about warrior culture comes from a man who ordered a makeup studio installed in the Pentagon so he could freshen up for TV appearances and motor-mouthed speeches to generals.In the process, he evacuated humility from the Pentagon and replaced it with vanity, arrogance and conceit. He posts videos of himself bench-pressing 300 pounds with his teenage son spotting him. He frequently participates in physical training alongside deployed U.S. service members and works directly with new recruits at military entrance stations.He’s doing that, not as some goodwill gesture, but to show off.He was caught applying makeup with his personal supply before a key war meeting with top Ukrainian officials. He wears a pocket square flag to press briefings, thinking that makes him patriotic.He’s trying to evacuate a Defense Department driven by peace and replace it with one that is obsessed with War.
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