Two women and a man died Friday after a hazardous materials emergency at a high-rise housing seniors in the Edgewater neighborhood.
The first call came in at 8:08 a.m. at 5821 N. Broadway, Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt said. One man was dead on the scene and two women were taken to Weiss Memorial Hospital, where they died, Merritt said.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified the victims as David Edwards, 53; Linda Daly, 70; and Royce Daugherty, 38. Autopsies determining the cause and manner of deaths were pending.
Merritt said it was unclear what happened at the building, the Judge Fisher apartments.
“It was not [carbon monoxide poisoning],’’ said Merritt. “It was not a fire.”
Chicago police confirmed three people died but had no further information.
The medical examiner’s report noted the three were in the same apartment unit.
The building is a 195-unit, high-rise senior building with studio and one-bedroom apartments that was built in 1965 and renovated in 2006, according to the Chicago Housing Authority’s website. The renovation was in conjunction with the CHA’s Plan for Transformation, according to the site.
Outside the building late Friday morning, Cora Allen, 68, said the apartment complex has been quiet since she moved in four months ago.
Nothing like this has ever happened, Allen said, adding the block is also quiet and calm.
“There’s no real violence in the building,” said Roberta Nunziato, 73.
Nunziato, who has lived in the building for more than five years, said she’s never seen this many police cars in front of the apartment building.
“This is totally unusual,” she said.
Nunziato said the building has a lunch program, a barbecue and meetings during the week. There’s a community feel, she said.
No one else in the building is in danger, said Matthew Aguilar, a CHA spokesperson.
