Costco store in California briefly evacuated after suspect sets fire to box of bleach

A Citrus Heights Costco was evacuated on Sunday evening after a man ignited a cardboard box filled with bleach bottles inside the store.

Around 5 p.m. Saturday, Citrus Heights police responded to a shoplifting call at a Costco located at 7000 Auburn Boulevard, according to Citrus Heights Police Department spokesman Lt. Michael Wells.

Wells said that Costco personnel had become suspicious of two subjects inside the store loading their cart with high-value, frequently shoplifted items.

When store security personnel confronted the subjects, one of them set fire to a box of bleach bottles in the store. Wells said it remained unknown whether the man lit the box on fire because he knew the bleach was flammable, or because he hoped only to create a distraction to escape from store security.

Costco employees were able to put out the fire using extinguishers, but the two subjects fled. Authorities have only a “generic description” of the suspects, Wells said.

The incident is currently under investigation by the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District’s Fire Investigation Unit, Wells said.