BOSTON -- A building in Boston’s South End was evacuated after officials say a woman committed suicide by ingesting a toxic substance.
The fire department says a woman on the first floor of the Mass. Ave. apartment committed suicide Monday night by ingesting sodium azide.
The woman ingested the substance around 9:00 p.m. Monday and was taken to Boston Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.
“She wasn't manifesting any signs when they transported her but she rapidly when downhill after arriving at Boston Medical Center," Dunbar said.
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Officials started pounding on doors and the apartment building was evacuated overnight Monday.
"We were asleep and my roommate came in, yelling, 'we've got to evacuate, we've got to evacuate'," one resident said. "No one would tell us what was going on, so we all evacuated, tried to grab anything we could; we didn't know how long it was going to be. We came outside. They quarantined us."
Four police officers and two EMS workers at the scene were also decontaminated and quarantined at the hospital.
“Their equipment and their clothing has been isolated to make sure there is no further contamination," Dunbar said.
So far the police officers and ambulance have shown no signs of being affected by the toxic substance.
Residents were allowed back into their homes Tuesday morning.
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