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The Situation Room

Pentagon Locked Down Over Air Quality Issue. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired June 11, 2026 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:00:03]

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: But even off to the Northeast, areas of the mid-Atlantic, there is still the potential there for some strong to severe thunderstorms. So it's not just the Midwest that's going to be affected today.

Now, the main concerns are going to be damaging winds, the potential for a few strong tornadoes, and even some large hail that will all be mixed in not just this morning, but as we go through the afternoon and evening hours as well.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, Allison Chinchar, thank you so much.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And the next hour of THE SITUATION ROOM starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

We're following major breaking news right now. The Pentagon, yes, the Pentagon, is on lockdown.

I want to go straight to CNN's Brian Todd for us.

Update our viewers, Brian. What's going on?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Wolf.

This is reporting from our colleague Haley Britzky that multiple floors and corridors inside the Pentagon have been locked down and others are being evacuated. That's according to three sources familiar with the situation.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirms that systems within the Pentagon -- quote -- "have detected an air quality issue necessitating precautionary measures until we determine its significance" -- end quote.

So this is an air quality issue that is affecting the Pentagon. And according to our sources, multiple floors and corridors have been locked down and others are being evacuated. I got a little bit more detail here. According to the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, hazardous materials response team is now responding to this incident at the Pentagon with the assistance of the Arlington County Virginia Fire Department.

That is according to a Pentagon spokesperson over -- the fire department spokesperson, Captain Jamie Jill. A post on social media from the Arlington Fire and EMS said that the Arlington County Fire Department hazardous materials team is operating at the Pentagon -- quote -- "during a hazardous materials incident."

So there is something apparently affecting the air quality of the Pentagon. A little bit more detail here, according to our sources, floors two through five and corridors four through seven of the Pentagon complex have been locked down. That's according to two sources.

A third source told CNN that police in the building are wearing gas masks and full chemical protective gear. So this does appear to be an air quality hazmat situation that is again causing multiple floors and corridors inside the Pentagon to be locked down and other floors and corridors to be evacuated.

We're getting more detail as we can here, guys, but that is what we can tell you right at this moment, multiple floors evacuated, multiple floors locked down at the Pentagon. According to the Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, they have detected an air quality issue necessitating precautionary measures until they determine the significance of this event.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: So, can we assume, Brian, that hundreds, if not 1,000 Pentagon employees are now emerging outside of the Pentagon to the fresh air outside to be safe?

TODD: That's probably a pretty good assumption, Wolf.

Now, the numbers -- we're not going to know the numbers of the people being locked down and evacuated. As you well know, you have covered this for years, the Pentagon is a massive building. Tens of thousands of people work there.

Now, as to how many people this is really affecting and how many people have to be locked down versus have to be basically taken out of the building for safety reasons, that's not clear. They're going to give us more details as we go along here, but we can tell you multiple floors and corridors have been locked down, while others have been evacuated.

And this -- again, to repeat, this is an air quality issue, according to the Pentagon spokesman, necessitating precautionary measures. So we just need to keep it in a little bit of that perspective. There are members of the Arlington County Fire Department also responding to the scene at the Pentagon, some of them wearing hazmat suits and other protective gear. Of course, that could be just a precaution until they figure out

exactly what this is.

BLITZER: Let me bring in a retired Colonel Cedric Leighton into this discussion.

You have spent a lot of time at the Pentagon. I have spent a lot of time at the Pentagon. I was CNN's Pentagon correspondent. And what worries me, if they're being locked down and they're still breathing the same air, maybe that's dangerous. Maybe they should just tell everybody to get out of the building.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, that's a really serious point, Wolf, because, yes, I spent 7.5 years in total at the Pentagon, both on the air staff and the joint staff.

And 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. Then there's the NMCC, the National Military Command Center, where the intelligence as well as all the operational pieces come together.

That's down in the basement of the Pentagon. But those areas are critically important to the national security of the United States and to the operations of the military. And given the fact that things are going on with Iran...

[11:05:03]

BROWN: Yes.

LEIGHTON: ... and, of course, there are other places around the world, we have a real situation here that could impact not only military readiness, but the ability to command and control those military forces.

And what will probably have to happen, at least if I were directing this, I would have -- I would move to an alternate command post, in essence, and have another entity take over at this particular point, in essence, do a continuation of operations movement here. And that I think would be essential.

BROWN: Yes, one would hope that they would have a contingency plan in place for something like this, right?

And I wonder, how serious, Sabrina, this air quality issue would need to be for this lockdown to happen?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, the Pentagon is a planning organization, so the good thing is that there are likely -- there are plans in place for something like this.

The first thing that any -- what's going to happen is they're going to assess the security of the situation and make sure that people can get out safely. If people are being asked to shelter in place, of course, there is the question of the air quality, but that is likely being assessed rapidly.

So there is definitely going to be plans in place. We're also talking about over probably 20,000 people that come in and out of the Pentagon on any given day. That's a lot of people to have evacuate. So you have to do it with order, with precision.

And the good thing is, is that, I mean, the staff at the Pentagon are so professional. They are prepared for this. And they're working with Arlington County Fire Department to address this issue. I would assume this gets resolved pretty quickly if it's nothing that's life- threatening.

But, of course, it's going to affect day-to-day -- I mean, the operations that are happening right now. And if -- the president said we're going to strike Iran tonight. That's coming up very soon. That means those operators are working in the NMCC, as Cedric was talking about.

And so that's going to cause a bit of disruption to just daily activities that are happening at the Pentagon right now.

BROWN: Yes, like, so floors two through five and corridors four through seven have been closed down.

SINGH: Yes. Yes.

BROWN: Can you give us a better understanding of what's happening typically on those floors?

SINGH: Yes.

Yes, I mean, I used to sit on floor two. The secretary's office is on the third floor. And then you have your inner rings to the outer rings. The E-Ring is where the secretary sits and then it kind of all falls -- folds in into that inner courtyard.

You're talking about hundreds, thousands of offices within each corridor where you have people sometimes in windowless offices, sometimes in SCIFs that we have talked about where compartmentalized information is handled. So all of this is going to affect so many people at different areas of the building.

And so to evacuate, let's say, over 20,000 people from that building, there's really only two main entrances that you can go out of, the river and the mall entrances, and then, of course, kind of through where the visitor center is. You can't have everyone just swarm those entrances.

So that's why they're probably saying in an orderly fashion to evacuate and for some people to stay in place.

BLITZER: I want to bring in CNN's national security reporter, Haley Britzky, right now.

Haley, in our reporting, we're now being told that police, there are always some police over at the Pentagon, are now wearing gas masks and full chemical protective gear. Do they have any idea where this problem originated? Was it a mechanical problem? God forbid, was there some sort of terrorist incident? What's going on?

HALEY BRITZKY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Wolf, we don't have any indication at this point that it's anything more nefarious like you're mentioning.

We're still very much figuring out what exactly is going on here, as you mentioned, police who are in their chemical hazmat gear. We know that authorities have been responding with the hazmat teams. Sources have been telling us that they obviously have been told that it's sort of an air quality, perhaps biochemical issue.

So a lot of questions still remaining here about what exactly is going on and how they're responding. But, as Sabrina was just mentioning, I mean, this is something that obviously Pentagon is going to be able to execute these sort of evacuations in a very orderly fashion.

We know that they have been communicating to people within the building to make sure to either lock down if they are in affected areas or to evacuate orderly if they're not. And so, as we have heard Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell saying this is a air quality issue necessitating precautionary measures until we determine its significance.

So, very much the Pentagon is still trying to figure out how serious this is as well. We're seeing from sources who are saying that this was happening very quickly, that they have been telling people to stay away from those areas elsewhere in the building, and so certainly a very serious issue, but one that the Pentagon will certainly be able to coordinate effectively, getting people out safely.

And I'm sure we will have answers soon as to what exactly is going on inside the building.

BLITZER: You know, Haley, it seems to me as a former Pentagon correspondent, if I were in that building right now, I wouldn't want to shelter in place. I'd want to get out of that building as quickly as possible. I assume that's what a lot of Pentagon officials are saying to themselves.

This is an air quality issue. If I breathe in this air, it potentially could endanger me. I want to get out of that building.

[11:10:01]

BRITZKY: Yes, Wolf, I mean, you know better than anyone, having been in the Pentagon at the time that you have, I mean, this is a huge, huge building.

So the air quality issues that they could be having right now, of course, going to be raising concerns from folks around the building. Obviously, there are other corridors and floors within the within the Pentagon that are not being affected.

We have been told that floors two -- two, three, four and five and corridors four through seven are the ones being locked down. There are other areas that are not being impacted right now, but certainly something that officials are going to be thinking about and maybe not wanting to stick around to find out more, perhaps wanting to evacuate, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, and they're trying to figure out, Colonel, what the -- what the hell caused all of this.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely, Wolf. And that's going to be the key thing, as Haley mentioned.

We have got -- you have got to basically determine the source of this. And if the Pentagon Force Protection folks, the Pentagon police, in essence, are dressed in hazmat suits, they're taking this very seriously and it's very clear.

One of the other things to note is that the last time we did an en masse evacuation of this type of the Pentagon would be during 9/11. And, basically, what they ended up doing was shutting down 395 and everybody just walked out of there in some cases without shoes and walked to wherever they needed to go to.

And that, of course, was a completely different incident than what this is. But it's a very serious possibility here. And, of course, we have to consider everything until we find out more.

BLITZER: Yes, that's the first thing that came to my mind.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: Because I covered the aftermath of 9/11. The Pentagon was being targeted. And a lot of Pentagon employees simply ran out of that building. They were afraid it was about to be bombed.

SINGH: I mean, you know how big that building is. I think the E-Ring, if you actually walk it, it's about a mile. So, I mean, it is a massive sprawling structure, and not only to evacuate, but then to secure it, which is what they're in the process of doing, that's going to take some time.

So I think we can safely say that people's days are going to be disrupted for probably a few hours. Let's hope this is an incident that is resolved quickly. I mean, the Pentagon police that operate those exits are incredibly professional. They know what they're doing. They want to ensure an orderly evacuation and safety.

But, of course, Wolf, I mean, you raised the point of people sheltering in place in their office. If it is an air quality issue that the Pentagon spokesperson raised, I would assume that many people also want to get out of those spaces.

BLITZER: Yes.

SINGH: So there's a lot of unknowns, but I think we will probably get more information as this unfolds in the next hour.

BLITZER: And if I'm seeing Pentagon police wearing gas masks and full chemical protective gear...

SINGH: Right.

BLITZER: ... I want to get out of that place as quickly as possible, especially if I don't have a gas mask or full chemical protective gear.

SINGH: Yes. Right.

And that building also has tourists come through for tours. So you also just have people coming in to see the building for the first time. This would be a pretty scary situation for someone to come in on and see your Pentagon police officers wearing hazmat suits and gas masks.

They want to ensure the safety of those coming into the building who are not familiar with the building are also safe as well.

BLITZER: All right, we're going to stay on top of this story and continue the breaking news.

We will take a quick break. Much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:17:48]

BLITZER: All right, take a look at this.

You're looking at live pictures of the Pentagon, one of the main entrances and exits of the Pentagon. Just a few minutes ago, we were watching, and there were some people running out of the building, understandably so, given what's going on.

Haley Britzky, our national security reporter, is watching all of this very, very closely for us.

Haley, what's the latest? Update our viewers who may just be tuning in.

BRITZKY: Yes, Wolf, so multiple floors and corridors right now within the Pentagon have been locked down, put into a shelter-in-place issue.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell saying this is due to an air quality issue, that they are carrying out tests to kind of determine its significance. And so the department is executing what he calls standard protection protocols.

We know that the Pentagon Force Protection Agency's hazardous materials response team is responding, in coordination with Arlington fire and EMS teams, due to a hazardous materials incident. This is what Arlington County Fire Department said on social media.

We also just heard some internal guidance going out to folks in the Pentagon saying that, for their safety, they need to evacuate these certain areas, these certain floors and corridors within the building, that response teams are in place, and that additional testing to determine what exactly is going on could take one to two hours.

So it may be a little while before we really understand what it is exactly that was happening here, if there really was an incident that resulted in this or if this is more of a precautionary issue, maybe a sensor was triggered, something along those lines. We're still figuring out what happened here.

But this is a lot of people, of course, Wolf, in the Pentagon who will have to be evacuated or put in shelter-in-place orders, and, as you mentioned, seeing people leaving the building. Obviously, people who are not in these affected corridors are being told to evacuate safely, so something that is going to continue to unfold over the next few hours, Wolf.

BLITZER: And Pentagon police already are seen all over the building wearing gas masks and full chemical protective gear. You see that, you want to get out of that building as quickly as possible.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: And, Haley, as someone who's worked at the Pentagon, I spent years there as CNN's Pentagon reporter, I know that, what, about 20,000 employees, people on a daily basis work inside that building. It's one of the largest office buildings in the world, as we all know.

[11:20:02]

So we're talking about a lot of people potentially at risk.

BRITZKY: We are, yes, thousands and thousands of people.

And as someone myself as well who worked in the building for years, I mean, even just leaving the building for fire drills or the microwave -- something in the microwave starting to smoke, and it evacuated one of the corridors, that took a lot of time to get all of those people out and to get them far enough away from the building safely and then to funnel back inside.

So, a serious disruption, if nothing else, for the workday of so many of these folks in the Pentagon, hopefully not something more serious, obviously, but something that they are continuing to test to try to figure out exactly what it is that happened here and is forcing this disruption, Wolf.

BLITZER: Sabrina, you were the deputy Pentagon press secretary...

SINGH: Yes.

BLITZER: ... as we all know.

What are they doing potentially right now with senior Pentagon officials, like the secretary of defense, for example, Pete Hegseth?

SINGH: Well, the secretary is most likely getting real-time updates on the situation, on what's happening, him and his senior staff.

BLITZER: But they're keeping him inside, you think?

SINGH: Well, that, I'm not sure about. I mean, they're going to, of course, take the precautions to make sure his safety is ensured.

So it's most likely that if it is a crisis, something like this that's unfolding in real time, they probably would have removed him from the building. And they're keeping him updated. They're going to keep the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff updated. I mean, it's all about those senior Pentagon leaders.

And then you have the service secretaries, as well as their senior staffs. So if it is the case that the recommendation by the Pentagon police and the Arlington Fire Department is to start evacuations while some people have to stay in place, they're going to remove those senior people out of the building so they can ensure that they can continue working, that they can continue.

Obviously, as we know, the president indicated that there are going to be strikes on Iran. If those are plans that are going to need to continue to move forward, these are people that are going to need to be in places to execute on those plans. So they're going to take that security pretty safely.

BROWN: So, like right now, how much of a disruption is this to command-and-control and these ongoing military operations?

SINGH: Yes.

Well, the Pentagon is a planning organization, so there's always redundancy built into the system. So they have other places where they can -- senior leaders can go and access secure devices, get connected to the network. It's probably not disruptive to many of the senior leaders, as much as it is to their staffs.

I mean, there's over 20,000 people that work in that building. So many people are supporting -- I mean, more than you know are supporting the operations in Iran, not just in U.S. Central Command, but at the Pentagon itself from the NMCC that's located there.

So it's going to cause a disruption, no question, but command-and- control will still be preserved. I mean, the secretary is going to retain access to his classified devices. If the president needs to reach the secretary, he can absolutely do so.

But it's more the disruption to the larger staff.

BLITZER: It's really a potentially very dangerous situation, because the U.S. is at war right now, and ongoing military operations U.S. versus Iran are continuing.

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's absolutely true, Wolf.

And when you -- Sabrina was talking about the command-and-control mechanisms are definitely -- definitely run through the Pentagon. It goes from the president to the secretary of defense, and then to the commanders of the unified commands. So here's where the redundancies come in that Sabrina was talking about, because, once you get beyond the secretary of defense, technically, according to the law, the chain of command actually goes from the secretary of defense to the unified commanders, so the combatant commanders.

So, in this particular case, when we're talking about Iran-, it's U.S. Central Command. And they, of course, have their headquarters down at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. So they can control things from there.

So the operations -- basically, the operations that are planned for tonight, if that, in fact, does come to fruition, they can be executed without the Pentagon being directly involved. Of course, the Pentagon wants to be involved because the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is the senior military adviser to the president, again, by law.

And because of that, he needs to be kept informed of everything that's going on. So, in these situations, what you're looking at is as many redundancies as possible. Luckily, we have built many of those redundancies into the systems as they exist right now.

So, if the Pentagon were to be made inoperable, for lack of a better term, because of this incident, we could still conduct military operations all around the world. And that's not just for CENTCOM, but for all the commands around the world.

BLITZER: So, hypothetically, since, right now, it's a very sensitive moment in this war with Iran, if there's a decision that the president of the United States makes meeting with his top national security advisers, in the White House Situation Room, the decision is made to go ahead, for example, as the president is now threatening, to take over Kharg Island that the Iranians have, one of their key facilities.

And the president in one of his social media posts just a little while ago threatening to do so within a matter of hours. That decision is made in the Situation Room. It then goes to the Pentagon and then goes to the U.S. military Central Command in Florida, and then they order the military operation to continue?

[11:25:02]

LEIGHTON: That's exactly right.

And, in fact, what would happen is, as the president directs that, it goes through the secretary of defense, who then takes it to the commander of U.S. CENTCOM. The commander of U.S. CENTCOM then gives it to his subordinate commander.

So that includes Air Force central for the Air Force, Army central for the Army component, the Marines and the Navy, again, all of these NAVCENT in that case. So those are the -- basically, the subordinate elements are commanded through that unified combatant commander.

And those decisions are then executed based on the president's orders. And that can happen very quickly. BLITZER: And it's interesting the Pentagon spokesman said, Pamela:

"The department is executing standard protection protocols, including a shelter-in-place order for the affected area."

And Sean Parnell added: "Response teams are in place and ready to support building occupants."

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: No specific details.

BROWN: Right.

BLITZER: If -- shelter in place is one thing, but get out of there if there are hazardous air material floating around.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: That would be significant.

BROWN: That would be significant.

And we're seeing here in this video up here that there are people who are getting out.

BLITZER: These are live pictures.

BROWN: You have seen some people running out of the building.

BLITZER: Running out of the building, yes.

BROWN: And as you heard Haley report, it could be one to two hours before we get the results of what this substance that was detected, whatever it is, what that is.

So I think that that is significant as we wait, right?

SINGH: Yes.

BROWN: They're -- we're really in this unknown period.

And we don't know if this was just a faulty sensor or if there's something more significant, something more nefarious. But just for the Pentagon to take this step to lock down and for some floors to be evacuated, it would need to be something pretty serious.

SINGH: I think it would have to be something significant, but it's always about the protection and the safety of the personnel that are working in the building.

So even if it is -- maybe this is nothing. There's a lot of unknowns, but maybe it's just something that was very minor or some sensors that went off. It's still important that the building take all the precautions and sort of work into their plans that they have prepared for to ensure the safety of the personnel there. And so that's what they're doing. So maybe people's lives are

disrupted for a few hours. That's OK. It's more about saving lives at this point.

BLITZER: Yes.

SINGH: And that's the most important thing that the building's doing.

BLITZER: As you note, about 20,000 people work in the Pentagon on a daily basis just on a normal day.

SINGH: Right.

Yes, it's one of the -- I mean, we were just talking about this, like one of the largest office buildings in the world and one of the largest employers in the United States. So you have people coming in and out of there at any given time.

I mean, there are people working there overnight, that, if they're working overnight and trying to leave, now obviously things are a bit disrupted. But -- so, what Cedric was saying is that, even if the Pentagon is shut down, the U.S. military is not shut down. Operations can still be conducted all over the world.

As you know, we have bases all over the world, and our combatant commanders are empowered to continue to make decisions that they need to make on behalf of the military, and, of course, are in contact with the secretary of defense, the chairman, and the president.

BROWN: And I imagine this is a decision that's not taken lightly.

SINGH: No. I -- this is pretty significant. I mean, when I was there, we did have some incidents where a corridor needed to be locked down. Sometimes, a security warning went off that would trigger just, like, a shelter in place.

Or a fire alarm, I remember, one time went off, and it went off for like 45 minutes. And we were all just kind of stuck in our offices. I think this is pretty significant. Hopefully, it devolves into nothing and it was just precautionary. But they are still taking the measures to protect the personnel that work there.

BLITZER: Yes.

And let's not forget what the president just a little while ago posted on social media: "The United States will be hitting Iran very hard tonight," specific, very hard tonight.

SINGH: Right.

BLITZER: "And at some point in the not-too-distant future," he added, "we will be taking Kharg Island and other Iranian oil infrastructure points," all this happening as the U.S. in the midst of potentially a major escalation of the military operation against Iran. So it's very significant.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Let's take a quick break. We will resume our special coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)