Man dies after explosion at Oak Park apartment building
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 64-year-old man from Oak Park has died, after an explosion earlier this week at the townhouse apartment building where he lived.
The explosion happened Wednesday evening at 221 S. Maple Ave.
Oak Park Fire Chief Ron Kobyleski said all six units of the building were left uninhabitable, leaving 12 people homeless. One man who was injured in the explosion was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in critical condition.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's office confirmed that man died around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday. He has been identified as David Rechs.
The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. The blast left chunks of the exterior brick walls missing and debris everywhere.
"My daughter and I was home, and we felt the building shake," said Ethan Colchamiro.
By the time Colchamiro looked outside the window of his apartment – just east of Harlem Avenue and a short distance from the Green Line tracks – the situation was serious.
"The street was so black with smoke, you couldn't see right in front of your face," he said.
That smoke poured from the end unit, where a man was inside. The preliminary investigation shows before the fire, there was some type of an explosion.
Earlier in the day on Wednesday, at least one neighbor smelled something odd.
"A neighbor had knocked on our door and said she thought she smelled something," Colchamiro said. "We went over to her unit, and really, it just smelled like wildfire aroma that's been in our area for weeks now."
The Oak Park Fire Department was working to determine if there was a gas leak, or exactly what sparked such destruction.
"I'm just really nervous, because I don't know if this is something that could also happen in my unit," Colchamiro said. "I'd love to know more about what caused it."