14 DAY TRIAL // The NORAD-NORTHCOM headquarters on Peterson Air Force Base in El Paso County, Colorado have been evacuated yesterday, March 7, after suspicious packages have been brought in.
KKTV reports that the alert has now been lifted, as the packages turned out to be harmless. The five boxes found before 10 a.m. prompted a lockdown of the institution. An investigation revealed that they were, in fact, full of office supplies.
They have been encountered in the Eberhardt-Findley Building, which houses both the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the U.S. Northern Command.
NORAD, a US-Canadian organization, had its control room set up at Cheyenne Mountain before the incident, their original HQ until moving to Peterson in 2006.
The temporary relocation was brought on by renovations performed at their main site at the Air Force Base.
A source clarifies that Essential Northern Command and NORAD operations have not been interrupted during the incident.
A 500-foot (152 m) area was sealed off as officials investigated the nature of the packages. Security was also upped in the two buildings neighboring the NORAD facility, and the north Air Force Base gate was off limits until 1 p.m.
Employees have described that the boxes seemed “out of place.” As a result, some 1,500 people have been sent home for the day.
After an initial examination, the packages have been removed from the premises, the Inquisitr writes. The evacuation process was completed in approximately four and a half hours.
Military dogs were used to determine if the content posed any threats to those in the facility. Testing was performed, in an effort to check for nuclear, biological or chemical hazards.
"Preliminary test results of the package indicated that there is not a positive test for a nuclear, biological or chemical element contained within the package," an Air Force Base spokesperson says in a statement.