At approximately 2:45 pm Wednesday, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District responded to Hobby Lobby for some sort of Hazmat issue possibly related to a theft attempt. An unknown substance was released inside the store
As of 3:00 pm, Hobby Lobby and Best Buy, located in the 5800 block of Lone Tree Way in the City of Antioch, were evacuated with a response of multiple fire trucks and AMR units to the scene. Its believed possibly pepper spray was released inside the store related to a theft attempt which left several employees and customers impacted by the release.
As of 3:30 pm a portion of the parking lot was blocked off and employees were still standing outside the stores as Contra Costa County Fire Protection District were sweeping the buildings for people inside and additional information about the source of the substance.
Antioch Police, Contra Costa County Fire, AMR were all on scene.
It is unknown when Hobby Lobby and Best Buy would return to normal business operations.
3:52 pm UPDATE – According to sources, 69 people were triaged in the parking lot. 3 People were transported and the canister related to the release has not been located.
5:15 pm UPDATE
On 11/1/2023 at approximately 2:50pm, Antioch Police Department officers responded to the Hobby Lobby on the report an unknown substance had been sprayed inside the store.
Officers arrived on scene and learned an unknown male subject deployed bear mace inside the store after being asked to leave. Two people were directly exposed and out of an abundance of caution they were transported to the local hospital. The rest of staff and customers were escorted out the store so fire and hazmat could de-contaminate the store.
Officers are investigating the case, and they will be following up on all leads.
9:30 pm UPDATE — here is the BC Report
DATE: 11/1/2023
TIME OF ALARM: 2:47:00 PM
TYPE OF ALARM: Hazardous Materials Incident, Mass Casualty Incident
LOCATION: 5849 Lone Tree Way, Antioch CA
RESPONSE: 6 Engines, 2 Trucks, 1 HazMat Unit, 2 Battalion Chiefs, 1 Safety Officer, 1 District Chief, 1 Incident Support Unit, 5 Medic Units
ASSISTING AGENCIES: Antioch PD, AMR
TOTAL FIRE PERSONNEL AT SCENE: 47
At 14:47 hours Contra Costa Fire was dispatched to a Hazardous Materials Incident at the Hobby Lobby on Lone Tree Way in Antioch. Upon arrival Battalion 9, met with approximately 20 store employees who were standing outside of the store complaining of eye burning and coughing. The store was evacuated and all employees and customers were relocated to the
parking lot in front of the store. An MCI (Multi-Casualty Incident) pre alert was declared due to the amount of people that had exited the store who were coughing, complaining of eye irritation, and had breathing problems.
According to the store Assistant Manager, a person had entered the store and got into an altercation with the manager regarding possible theft. This person then sprayed a substance in the store and fled. Fire apparatus began arriving on scene
and were assigned to various roles including back up teams, triage and operations. E93 was assigned to perform a rescue
based on a report that the store manager had stayed behind and went into his office. E93’s crew successfully performed the
rescue.
EMS 8 arrived and was assigned to the medical group , Battalion 8 arrived and was assigned Operations for the incident. Unified Command was established with CCCFPD, AMR and Antioch PD. Fire units we assigned to assist the Medical Group
with triaging patients. In total, 69 people were triaged however only 3 people wanted to be transported to the hospital. Because of the number of patients, the MCI was upgraded to a Tier 3 incident.
CCCFPD HazMat units arrived and began the process of identifying the product. After a thorough identification process, the product was determined to be a bear spray-like substance and was not toxic, however these types of substances are irritants.
Once this was determined CCCFPD crews began to use large fans to ventilate the building to clear out any remaining product.
Once the ventilation was complete and the air monitors were no longer picking up any substances, the Incident Command
was broken down and all fire units were released. The store was then turned over to the assistant manager of Hobby Lobby.
