Pentagon staff were ordered to shelter in place June 11 after systems in the Department of War’s Arlington, Virginia, headquarters detected an air quality issue.
Assistant War Secretary Sean Parnell confirmed the lockdown, saying the measure was taken to ensure safety.
“The Pentagon has sophisticated systems to ensure the safety of the building and its occupants,” Parnell said in a statement on X. “Those systems have detected an air quality issue necessitating precautionary measures until we determine its significance.”
The War Department was conducting standard protection protocols, Parnell said. That included the shelter-in-place order for the affected area.
Response teams were also in place and ready to support building occupants, he said….