Hazardous scene
Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune
AUGUST 28, 2015
By Kate Thayer and Jennifer Johnson Tribune Newspaperscontact the reporters
Des Plaines
Police: No foul play in Des Plaines-area hazmat deaths
Police said Friday that they suspect carbon monoxide poisoning was responsible for killing a father and son in their townhouse near Des Plaines and for causing a third family member to become critically ill.
Authorities had launched a large-scale emergency response and had sent a crew in full hazardous materials protective gear into the residence on Thursday afternoon after the first officers to arrive at the scene were overcome by fumes and had to be treated at a hospital.
Two people are dead from an unidentified hazardous material incident inside a home near Des Plaines.Aug. 28, 2015. (WGN-TV)
The Cook County Sheriff's Department was investigating the source of the carbon monoxide in the townhouse Friday but said foul play was not suspected.
The dead were identified as Tae Kim, 83, who also went by John, and his son Hong Kim, 53, whose bodies were found in their townhouse in unincorporated Maine Township.
A woman identified as the wife of Tae Kim and mother of Hong Kim was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where she remained Friday evening in critical condition, said Sophia Ansari, spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.
Hong Kim is named as the owner of Signature A-1 Cleaners in Wood Dale, according to a list of licensed dry cleaners from the Drycleaner Environmental Response Trust Fund of Illinois. A man who answered the phone at the business Friday confirmed that Kim was the owner.
First responders arrived at the townhouse complex near Potter Road in unincorporated Maine Township after a relative of the Kim family called 911 to report the three were in distress, said Richard Dobrowski, chief of the North Maine Fire Protection District.
Four sheriff's officers who went to the scene suffered respiratory problems and were treated and released from a hospital, police said. On Thursday evening, crews were allowed to return after ruling out certain contaminants.