CHICAGO — Two people have died and four Cook County sheriff’s officers were sent to the hospital in a hazardous materials emergency at a townhouse near Des Plaines.
Authorities said that at about 3:30 p.m. a relative of the townhouse residents called 911 to report three people in distress. Four sheriff’s officers who entered the residence had to leave after experiencing respiratory “difficulties,” officials said.
The officers were released from the hospital a few hours later, said Sophia Ansari, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman.
Richard Dobrowski, chief of North Maine Fire Protection District, said two people in the townhouse were dead, and a third was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
The woman who was hospitalized remained in critical condition as of about 8:30 p.m., Ansari said. Officials confirmed the two people who died were men, but their identities have not been released.
Authorities evacuated the multi-unit complex to which the townhouse is attached but later allowed most residents to return and reopened the area to traffic.
The complex is in the 9400 block of Harrison Street near Potter Road in unincorporated Maine Township, near Apollo School.
Authorities have not elaborated on the nature of the hazardous materials situation. Later Thursday evening, after ruling out certain, unspecified contaminants, responders were allowed back into the unit without full protective gear, though residents of the three other units that are in the same building were still being kept out of their homes. Authorities said oxygen levels in the air appeared to be normal, and nothing unusual was detected in the water supply.
The location is about a block east of a state of Illinois building that houses the state police and other agencies.
Kumar Bommagala, who lives three houses away from the hazardous materials incident, said he returned home from work to find his street blocked by emergency vehicles. He was not allowed into his home, he said.
“I’m a little scared about it,” Bommagala said, adding that he had just moved in about three weeks ago.
Jennifer Johnson is a Pioneer Press reporter; Karen Ann Cullotta and John Keilman are Chicago Tribune reporters.
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