Deaths of 2 pesticide workers investigated, prompts evacuation at Broward furniture warehouse

FORT LAUDERDALE -- A furniture warehouse in Pompano Beach was briefly evacuated Tuesday as a precaution after two pesticide company employees who had been at the site last weekend had died and a third fell ill, authorities said.

The Pompano Beach Fire Rescue team checked the Baer's Furniture Warehouse building at 1589 NW 12th Ave. to determine if a substance at the site may have played a role in the illness and fatalities, a spokesman for the Broward County Sheriff's Office said.

Employees inside the building were evacuated but allowed to return about an hour later.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for the furniture company said, "No employee of Baer's has been injured, and we have been cleared to return to the building and resume operations as usual." 

The warehouse is located less than a mile from Markham Elementary School, which went on a hold status, keeping everyone indoors the Sun-Sentinel reported.

The sheriff's office said the three workers completed the fumigation job on Saturday before one of them decided to go to a Palm Beach hospital after feeling unwell.

Investigators later discovered that one employee was found dead in Hollywood and the body of the second pest control worker was found in Boynton Beach. 

Officials have not identified either of the three people or said if they know what led to the fatalities and sickness.

Boynton Beach police are investigating the worker's death in its jurisdiction and police in Hollywood are probing the death in its jurisdiction, the Broward sheriff's office said.