FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA 21) – "Nobody’s got communication with anybody on the inside," said Jacob Shrock who’s girlfriend is in the jail.

Inmates’ families gathering outside the Allen County jail with questions about safety as the jail went on lock down.

A hazmat team called in, and several people were taken to the hospital.

Those treated, now stable, and the lock down lifted.

Shrock says, "I got a phone call from my girlfriend that’s in the Z block and she said that the whole jail was on lockdown and I need to come down and see what’s going on."

Shrock’s girlfriend was right, police and fire crews rushed to the jail leaving everyone to question what was happening inside.

"Nobody really know’s what it is," says Shrock.

We’ve seen these scenes play out before in the past, it was guards being exposed to opioids that caused the problem.

This time, drugs appear to be the culprit again, but what kind is still a mystery.

Captain Steve Stone of the Allen County Sheriff’s department says, "There is no way of knowing exactly what it was or how it got into the jail."

Capt. Stone says two female confinement officers entered a jail cell for a search, when they got in there they notice a towel draped over the toilet.

When they took the towel off, they noticed there wasn’t any water, instead smoke started pouring out, and fumes hit the officers in the face.

"They immediately started feeling light headed, dizzy, sick to their stomach," says Capt. Stone.

The officers went to nursing to seek treatment when two other officers entered the cell, leaving them to feel exactly the same way.

All four were sent to the hospital for evaluation, but they weren’t the only ones.

Capt. Stone says, "The female inmate that was in the cell, although she showed no signs of contamination or exposure she was also transported to be checked out."

With his girlfriend still inside Shrock said he was a little nervous, but had faith in the first responders, saying "They know what the’re doing, it just takes time."

Time is exactly what was needed, they had to decontaminate all the employee’s before they left.

A busy evening for everyone involved.

Capt. Stone says, "You can’t predict the future, you don’t know what you are going to come across on a daily basis.

According to the fire department, the cell where this happened was on the fifth floor.

The jail is back up and running like normal.

Toxic scares at the jail, a familiar problem in recent months for northeast Indiana.

The Allen county jail, had a more severe emergency on November 20th, after officials found an opioid substance inside a jail cell.

Leaving dozens of officers and a nurse to be treated for symptoms related to an opioid overdose, after smelling smoke inside a cell, and finding a piece of paper dipped in a opioid substance.

Inmates were moved to a different part of the jail, and everybody recovered.

Police weren’t sure how the drug made its way into the jail.

Another scare months later, at the Whitley County jail, February 5th, more than 20 people were taken to the hospital, after they were exposed to an "unknown substance".

Investigators say a woman booked into the jail, had the substance on her, when she released it in the area.

She affected the 24 people in the room,including inmates and confinement officers.

Hazmat cleaned up the booking room, and the threat posed no risk to the public.