Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: Many Staffers Evacuate from FBI Headquarters

Nonessential employees are evacuated from the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC. [New Yorker, 9/24/2001; Kessler, 2002, pp. 421] The FBI headquarters is located in the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Ninth and Tenth Streets, six blocks away from the White House. The building is seven stories high along Pennsylvania Avenue and rises to 11 stories at the rear. [Kessler, 2007, pp. 15; US Government Accountability Office, 11/2011, pp. 6 ; Associated Press, 12/10/2012; Capital News Service, 10/6/2016]
Headquarters Is Evacuated after the Pentagon Attack – The evacuation apparently takes place shortly after 9:37 a.m., when the Pentagon was hit (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). Denise Smith, a forensic scientist, is at work in a laboratory in the Hoover Building when she and her colleagues learn of the attacks on the World Trade Center. “Then, all of a sudden, we could see flames and smoke coming from the Pentagon,” she will later recall. “Seconds later,” according to the Baraboo News Republic, “everyone in the building was told to evacuate.” [Baraboo News Republic, 9/10/2011] Author Cindi McMenamin will write that her brother Dan, who is working at FBI headquarters this morning, and his colleagues “immediately evacuated” after “getting word that the Pentagon had been hit.” [McMenamin, 2012, pp. 64] It apparently takes a considerable time to get everyone away from the building. “The backup to leave the FBI’s underground garage was half an hour,” according to journalist and author Ronald Kessler. [Kessler, 2002, pp. 421]
Headquarters Is Feared to Be a Terrorist Target – The headquarters is apparently evacuated due to fears that it may be the target of a terrorist attack. “Assuming that FBI headquarters would be the next target, nonessential employees were being evacuated from the J. Edgar Hoover Building,” Kessler will describe. [Kessler, 2007, pp. 15] McMenamin will write that her brother and his colleagues evacuate “as they guessed their building—and any other federal building—could be next.” [McMenamin, 2012, pp. 64] Attorney General John Ashcroft, who will arrive at FBI headquarters early this afternoon (see (Between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.) September 11, 2001), will state that sometime before his arrival it had been thought “that one of the [hijacked] planes might be headed for the FBI headquarters building.” [9/11 Commission, 12/17/2003 ] Many FBI agents and senior FBI officials who remain in the headquarters work from the Strategic Information and Operations Center (see (Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Washington Post, 10/14/2001; Kessler, 2002, pp. 5] The center, on the building’s fifth floor, is fortified so its occupants can survive a bombing or other kind of attack. [New York Times, 11/2/2001] Other security measures are also taken around this time. Police block off Ninth and Tenth Streets alongside the Hoover Building. Bomb-sniffing dogs and FBI police officers armed with submachine guns then patrol the perimeter around the building. [Kessler, 2002, pp. 421]