Cobb County authorities continued to investigate an apparent “suicide by hazmat” case at an apartment complex near Marietta.
Police, firefighters and a hazardous materials team were dispatched to the Jefferson Lakeside Apartments on Thursday afternoon after a man’s body and potentially hazardous chemicals were found in one of the units.
A call came in shortly after 1 p.m. about a body discovered at the apartments, Lt. Dan Dupree, spokesman for the Cobb County Fire Department, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The complex is in the 2000 block of Roswell Road.
“Maintenance from the apartment complex found a deceased person inside an apartment in Building 13,” Dupree said. “We responded along with the Cobb Police Department. When we entered the apartment, we discovered a potential hazardous materials situation.”
Next to the deceased was a strange chemical cocktail. Dupree described the scene as a “suicide by hazmat,” in which the victim apparently mixed various chemicals together to create a toxic gas that killed him.
Maintenance workers who entered the apartment were quarantined while the hazmat team tried to identify the chemicals, Dupree said.
They turned out to be “household-type products mixed together,” the fire department spokesman said in an email Thursday night.
In the meantime, the workers and initial responders who also were exposed to the chemical were taken to a local hospital as a precaution.
“They are not hurt per se, but as a precaution in these situations, it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Dupree said. “They could feel the skin on their face had a slight sting, a burning sensation. That’s it.”
They were released from the hospital about 9 p.m., Dupree said.
Firefighters also went door to door to check on neighbors, and at least one who lives in an adjacent unit was asked to evacuate, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Cobb police Officer Mike Bowman told the AJC in an email, “It is a suicide with an unknown chemical. We are waiting on Fire Hazmat to clear scene so we can clear the body.”
The fire department was still at the scene about 9 p.m., Dupree said.
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