Fire officials in Seekonk believe that a man killed himself by breathing in a mixture of hydrogen sulfide while inside a car, in a parking lot, where a carnival was scheduled to take place.

Thankfully the man did leave several notes on the car warning people to stay away.

And without those warnings, officials say that the situation could have been much worse.

The warnings were first discovered by a group of kids at around 2:30 Friday afternoon.

"It said poisonous gas, hydrogen sulfide, do not open the doors, call 9-1-1 and get the hazmat team." said 13-year old Matthew Stanley.

The toxic chemical that authorities say a Boston University doctoral student may have ingested when she apparently committed suicide at her South End flat is cheap and available with just a few clicks of a mouse, according to a toxicologist who says sodium azide is in the “same class” as the cyanide suicide concoctions that have sparked similar haz-mat responses in recent years.

“It’s easy to obtain,” said Roger W. Giese, a professor of chemistry and biomedical science at Northeastern University. The chemical is used as a preservative in laboratories but could also be purchased online, he said. “It’s inexpensive, it’s water soluble. It’s salt, like sodium chloride. ... And it doesn’t take very much” to be lethal.

BU officials said they’re probing whether the 25-year-old woman, a third-year student in the medical school’s pharmacology program, had ingested a chemical from one of their laboratories. The woman on Monday night was taken to Boston Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Police said they found what appeared to be a suicide note and a relative told them she suffered from depression.

Twelve people were evacuated from a South End apartment building and four Boston police officers and an ambulance crew were taken to a hospital after a woman committed suicide Monday night inside an apartment by ingesting a toxic chemical, fire officials said.

Boston Deputy Fire Chief Steve Dunbar said at the hazmat scene that the woman ingested the chemical on the first floor of 676 Mass. Ave. at about 9 p.m. and was later pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

He said four police officers and the ambulance team of two EMS workers were being quarantined at BMC to determine whether they were affected by the substance.

Dunbar said a relative of the woman, whose name and age he did not know, reported that the victim told her she ingested a chemical and asked that her cats be taken care of.

The deputy fire chief said the victim appeared to be young, but he could not be more specific.

He said the woman is believed to have ingested sodium azide, a chemical used to make airbags. “But it can metabolize into some kind of cyanide,” Dunbar said, adding that the woman died about an hour or two after ingesting the substance.

WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The Missouri Emergency Response Commission, in cooperation with New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control has developed a course called "Chemical Suicide: Information for the Emergency Responder," which will be held March 22 from 6-9 p.m. at the University of Central Missouri's Wood Building, room 100.

Chemical suicide is happening across the U.S. and has already happened in Missouri.

This method of suicide has grown rapidly in Japan since 2007 and experts agree that it will continue to grow here in the U.S. over the next several years. This form of suicide creates some very dangerous hazards for the emergency responder due to the highly toxic gasses that are created.

A VILLAGE was sealed off earlier today after a chemical suicide bid turned a home into a potential death scene.

Firefighters, paramedics, police and an ambulance hazardous area response team (HART) rushed to Chippinghurst, near Garsington, at about 7am.

The entire village was sealed off and residents were told not to leave their homes after a 23-year-old man filled his house with the killer gas hydrogen sulphide.

He was found gasping for breath by his father who immediately called the police and paramedics.

The incident ended with the suicidal man being taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Fire brigade officials refused to discuss the incident and referred all calls to the police.

Greene County authorities used a robot to approach a car with a strong chemical odor Wednesday morning and found a man in his mid-20s inside, deceased.

They believe he committed suicide.

He was found in a car parked at a dead end street in a subdivision near the intersection of U.S. 60 and Missouri 174 in Republic.

Republic police and fire, as well as Springfield fire units, staged an operation to investigate the scene at about 8 a.m. and stayed at the scene more than an hour, keeping their distance because of the odor.

The Southampton Hospital Emergency Department entrance was shut down for several hours early Wednesday morning as hazardous materials crews responded when a man attempted to commit suicide by mixing dangerous chemicals in his car, parked at the ER entrance, to create deadly fumes, authorities said.

The Bridgehampton man, whom police did not identify, created a chemical fog in his closed Volkswagen convertible sometime before 3 a.m., according to Southampton Village Police Chief Thomas Cummings.

“His goal was to commit suicide, but I guess at a certain point he changed his mind and pulled up to the ER and walked in,” the chief said, noting that both the emergency entrance on Lewis Street and the man’s car were contaminated.

SEATTLE – A hazardous-materials team and bomb squad were called Sunday morning to the parking lot of a church in the East Bremerton, Wash., area, where a man’s body was found in a pickup along with a sign on the driver’s window warning people to steer clear of the vehicle because of a deadly gas.

Kitsap County Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Wilson said the case is a suicide, apparently similar to others across the nation in which common chemicals are used to create a colorless gas that is toxic to suicide victims but also potentially harmful to police officers, medics and others who get close.

In this case, Wilson said, the hazmat team from nearby Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor took measurements and determined that the level of gas was not high enough to cause an explosion.

A hazardous-materials team and bomb squad were called Sunday morning to the parking lot of an East Bremerton-area church, where a man's body was found in a pickup along with a sign on the driver's window warning people to steer clear of the vehicle because of a deadly gas.

Kitsap County sheriff's Deputy Scott Wilson said the case is a suicide, apparently similar to others across the nation in which common chemicals are used to create a colorless gas that is toxic to suicide victims but also potentially harmful to police officers, medics and others who get close.

In this case, Wilson said, the hazmat team from nearby Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor took measurements and determined that the level of gas was not high enough to cause an explosion.

A CDC analysis of "chemical suicides," also known as "hazmat suicides," shows that 10 were reported in six states during 2006-2010, killing nine people and injuring four law enforcement officers who responded. None of those officers was wearing PPE, although two had received hazmat training, the authors reported in the Sept. 9 issue of CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

By contrast, 208 people killed themselves during a three-month period in 2008 in Japan by the same methods of mixing household chemicals breathing the resulting poisonous gas (usually hydrogen sulfide or hydrogen cyanide) inside an enclosed space. "The large number of similar suicides is believed to have resulted from the posting of directions for generating poisonous gas on the Internet," the authors noted.

AURORA — A suspected chemical suicide forced the evacuation of an apartment complex, one of a small but growing number of such cases nationwide.

Residents from 36 units at the Chelsea Park Village apartments had to leave their homes overnight during the investigation and cleanup.

All were allowed home by 4 p.m. Saturday.

Police and firefighters were called to 12079 E. Archer Place about 4 p.m. Friday, Fire Capt. Allen Robnett said.

When they arrived, they found a note taped to a bathroom door saying hazardous materials had been used and to call 911. The building was evacuated, and when the hazardous materials team entered the apartment, members found the body of a woman in the sealed bathroom, Robnett

Louisville officials believe they’ve seen the city’s first case of chemical suicide after an incident in Old Louisville in which a man was found dead in a car Friday afternoon.

About 12:30 p.m., Louisville Metro Police officers were called to the 1100 block of Garvin Place on reports of a suspicious vehicle that seemed to have an unresponsive man inside, said Officer Carey Klain, a department spokeswoman.

When officers approached the car, they found a note on it that warned there were hazardous materials inside and urging people to “use caution.”

At that point, officers notified Louisville Fire & Rescue to ask for a hazardous materials team to respond to the scene.

Because of the note, officials warned residents within 30 feet of the car to remain inside until firefighters could secure the scene and make sure any risk was eliminated.

It took until about 2:30 p.m. for firefighters to safely enter the car. They found a man, believed to be in his 30s, along with some household chemicals inside the car.

Firefighters were able to neutralize the chemicals, said Capt. Sal Melendez, a fire spokesman.

Homicide detectives are investigating the case as a death investigation.

Klain said while this type of suicide has not been seen in Louisville before, other law enforcement agencies across the country have seen similar cases.

Deputy Chief Jacob Oreshan of the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control has been tracking cases of chemical suicides nationally since 2008. Last year, there were 36 chemical suicides logged, but since January Oreshan said there have been at least 27, not counting Friday’s in Louisville.

“It’s just gaining in popularity,” Oreshan said, fueled in part by more information becoming available about the practice via media reports and the Internet.

STILLWATER -- An 18-year-old man died Friday night after apparently inhaling a deadly vapor while in a car in his driveway.

A leading state fire official says the death bears resemblance to what's called a "chemical suicide," but officials are still investigating the circumstances.

Joshua J. Brisbin of 3 Riverside Drive was pronounced dead at the scene by Saratoga County Coroner Thomas Salvadore, sheriff's officials said. The man "had succumbed to some chemicals that were in the vehicle," a sheriff's office statement said.

Peter Hoesel, Brisbin's stepfather, called 911 about 7 p.m. after finding his stepson unresponsive in his car, officials said. An initial investigation Friday night revealed two household chemicals in the car that when mixed together make hydrogen sulfide, a deadly vapor, sheriff's authorities said.

SAN ANTONIO -- An apparent suicide with a bizarre twist causes a hazmat scare on the city's northwest side Tuesday night.
Just after 9 p.m. Tuesday, San Antonio police responded to a call from neighbors reporting a foul smell and liquid running down the driveway from a closed garage in the 4900 block of Port Kenton.
Fire and police units were dispatched to the location. Upon entering the home, investigators found one of several notices posted stating a suicide in progress and toxic chemicals at the location.
In addition, police said the man left a suicide note.
Investigators discovered hydrogen sulfide gas. Officers said the victim inhaled the gas inside his car and died.
The situation created a hazardous materials incident causing fire and police officials to evacuate nearby homes.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The suicide of a young woman in the Hollywood Hills might have seemed just another sad Tinseltown story but for large notes plastered on the window of the car in which she died: "Danger! Chemicals Inside! Call 911."
Police and coroner's investigators had seen this before — three or four times in the past year — and they knew the danger was real to them and the neighborhood. Had the chemical cloud escaped from the car with people nearby, many others could have died, according to authorities. An evacuation of residents was contemplated but never carried out.

A man was found dead inside a car on Arsenal Street this evening and authorities are saying the death was an apparent suicide.

According to Watertown Police Lt. Michael Lawn, a couple walking their dog near the parking lot of 480 Arsenal St. spotted the silver Honda Accord and called in a suspicious vehicle to police. Officers were called to the scene just before 6 p.m. Saturday.

When police arrived on scene, Lawn said they found notes on the front driver- and passenger-side windows stating "poison used, stay away." The note also mentioned the poison used, "H2S" (hydrogen sulfide), as well as instructions to call hazmat teams. 

A dead man was found in a car containing poisonous gas on Arsenal Street in Watertown, according to police. No one else has been reported injured at the scene but police, fire and Hazmat officials are on scene for a Level 3 Hazmat situation.

According to Watertown police, the death is a suicide. It "does not appear to be suspicious," according to a spokeswoman from the Middlesex District Attorney's office.

According to police reports, a couple walking their dog along the bike path near 500 Arsenal St. at about 5:50 p.m. noticed a gray Honda Accord in a parking lot. The car reportedly had two notes on the window -- one saying "Poison H2S gas" and one saying "One breath kills, notify Hazmat."

Police officers and firefighters responded to the scene and notified the state hazmat team, according to reports. They reportedly discovered a deceased man in the car. The man's identity has not been released.

A 49-year-old man has been found dead in his flat following a suspected chemical incident.

Residents of Valiant House, in Vicarage Crescent, Battersea, were evacuated from their block this morning after the building's caretaker found a suicide note pinned to the front door of one of the flats.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan (Met) Police said: "There was a suggestion that Nitrogen gas had been used so it was treated as a chemical incident."

Police, the London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade all sent specialist teams to the area after the caretaker raised the alarm at 8.05am.

A man mixed chemicals that produced a deadly toxin that killed him Tuesday in what authorities are labeling a suicide.

Fire department hazardous materials teams were called to a Northwest Side home in the 4900 block of Port Kenton late Tuesday to investigate a call that dangerous chemicals had been found with a body inside a garage.

Investigators said the owner of the residence called police around 9 p.m. when he discovered his tenant dead inside his vehicle.

The car was parked inside the residence's garage of the home. Authorities suspect the man killed himself by mixing the dangerous chemicals to produce hydrogen sulfide, a colorless, very poisonous gas with the characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs, according to various Web sites.

Neighbors had complained earlier about foul odor coming from the residence.

Authorities said the body of the man, who authorities are not identifying until next of kin are notified, had been decomposing for several weeks.

WICHITA, Kansas -- Wichita police say the body of a man found Sunday afternoon is the result of a chemical suicide.  It’s a growing trend across the country that’s made its way to Wichita.

A lawn care worker found the 32-year-old Wichita man’s body in car that had been parked in the parking lot of The Alley, an entertainment and bowling venue, in east Wichita for nearly two weeks.

Police say the man used a series of chemicals to create a poisonous gas in order to take his own life.

DENVER - The fire department evacuated a highrise apartment building at 16th Street and Glenarm Place after a person who lived on the 11th floor committed suicide using the chemical agent hydrogen sulfide.

Phil Champagne with Denver Fire says there was a major discharge of the chemical and the 11th and 12th floors were immediately evacuated.

Champagne described the gas as a highly concentrated sewer gas.

Two neighbors found the man that committed suicide. The man and woman were taken to Denver Health after they were sprayed down and decontaminated. 9News is working to find out how they are doing.

The Denver Fire Department hazmat team along with department personnel set up outside of the 1600 Glenarm Place Apartments on Sunday. Authorities said a man on the 12th floor killed himself with a chemical. (Eric Lutzens, The Denver Post )
A man who committed suicide in a downtown luxury high-rise Sunday night also caused a hazardous-material scare with the chemical he used to kill himself, authorities said.

The 12th-floor resident in the 1600 Glenarm Place Apartments used hydrogen cyanide, said Denver Fire spokesman Phil Champagne.

The residents in the apartment below him saw a liquid dripping through their vents about 7 p.m., he said.

The 11th and 12th floors were evacuated immediately, and police were monitoring other floors. No one outside the building was ever at risk, Champagne said. Glenarm Place is a 33-story building with 330 units.

Two residents were taken to the hospital, but their conditions were not immediately known.

Hydrogen cyanide is a poisonous, flammable liquid used in industrial processes and has a history in chemical warfare.

No information about the man was released. He was found dead in his closet, Champagne said.

LEAGUE CITY, Texas – Police and hazmat crews were called to Walter Hall Park Friday afternoon after a body was found in the passenger seat of a parked car.

The vehicle was found around noon in a parking lot near the 800 block of Highway 3.

Police said there were three notes taped to the outside of the windows.

One of the notes said "Hydrogen sulfide gas. Do not attempt entry. One breath can kill, Call hazmat! DANGER."

Another had a skull and crossbones graphic with the word "POISON" beneath it.

Officers and fire personnel immediately evacuated and closed the park while they waited for a Houston hazmat team to arrive.

The identity of the man was not released.

IRVINGTON – Irvington Police became suspicious when they received a report of a vehicle on Osceola Avenue near Havermeyer Road Monday evening with signs in the windows that read “CALL HAZMAT.”

When they got there, they found a man, unconscious, slumped over in the front seat of a locked Jeep Liberty. Officers detected a strong chemical order coming from the vehicle and observed a container with a blue liquid.

They recognized the signs as being consistent with someone who is trying to commit suicide through the use of chemicals.

The Irvington Fire Department, Irvington Ambulance Corps, Westchester County Department of Public Safety and county Department of Emergency Services were called to the scene. As a precaution, nearby residents were asked to voluntarily evacuate the area.

After a short investigation, the vehicle was opened and the dead body of a man, identified as John Kelly, 24, was recovered, Police Chief Michael Cerone said.

An elderly woman from Brighton who died after ingesting cyanide on Tuesday left a note in Russian mentioning the cyanide and warning family members to be careful, according to Steve MacDonald, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department.

An investigation into the cause of death of the woman, who police identified this afternoon as Olga Tretyakov, 72, is ongoing -- including the question of how she obtained the cyanide. She was a research technician in a laboratory at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Bill Schaller, a spokesman for Dana-Farber, said police informed the hospital of Tretyakov's death Tuesday afternoon.

"She had been a valued member of our research community for more than 20 years, and we are deeply saddened by this loss," Schaller said. "We are working closely with the Boston police to learn more about the circumstances of her death."

Cyanide compounds are often used in biomedical research laboratories. Schaller said it was not known whether Tretyakov would have had access to the chemical in the laboratory where she worked.

A Ligonier man has been charged after attempting suicide in a public place using hydrogen sulfide.

Somerset Borough police said Glen A. Gill, 41, Gravel Hill Road, parked his truck in the Somerset County Assistance Office parking lot along Stayrook Street Jan. 15.

Police were sent to that location for a suicide attempt at 8:24 a.m. When police arrived, they were advised that Gill had hung a hand-written note on his truck stating “Do Not Enter — Call Hazmat — Hydrogen Sulfide Inside.” Known as detergent suicide, hydrogen sulfide is created when certain household cleaners are mixed together.

A man attempted to kill himself at the Somerset Industrial Park Saturday morning after creating a deadly gas from household chemicals.

Somerset Borough police Chief Randy Cox said the man, who he declined to identify, created Hydrogen Sulfide by mixing two unnamed household cleaners together. The man had parked his truck in the parking lot of the industrial park in front of the Department of Public Welfare around 9 a.m. He placed a sign on his truck that said “call hazmat.”

When police arrived the man had a jug of the chemical and was outside the vehicle.

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) – Emergency crews are in the process of being released from the hospital after they were exposed to a chemical one woman hoped would kill her.

This all started around 1 a.m. Monday in the 9,000 block of Brook Road.

Police say a woman called 911 from inside her car saying she was going to kill herself with a chemical called methyl bromide.

WEST GOSHEN — A man who committed suicide Friday morning did so by using the same chemicals that investigators say a Kennett Square man used to kill himself in October.

Police said the method — known as "detergent suicide" — is an alarming trend across the country and is believed to have originated in Japan.

"This is the second one here (in Chester County)," West Goshen Police Lt. Greg Stone said Monday. "I've heard about it across the country."

Stone said investigators do not want to disclose the ingredients used to help prevent a reoccurrence. But he said the ingredients were combined to create hy

drogen sulfide, the same colorless, poisonous gas discovered in a vehicle on Oct. 11 along East Hillendale Road in Pennsbury, where a 30-year-old man was found dead in what police also classified as a suicide.

Police are investigating the unattended death of a 21-year-old University of Massachusetts student and a deadly chemical release inside a parked car at the Rolling Green apartments off Route 9.

Police and fire officials, including personnel from the Department of Fire Services Hazardous Materials Response unit, evacuated the parking lot at the 422 Belchertown Road complex Tuesday morning to take a closer look at a suspicious vehicle, where the man's body was found. Police were called to the scene at 9:04 a.m. after a passer-by made observations about the vehicle, said Detective Lt. Ronald A. Young, head of the Amherst Police Detective Bureau.

Young said a "chemical exposure was evident" at the scene of the death. Fire Chief Tim Nelson -- who called for the hazardous materials team -- said the chemical found was hydrogen sulfide.

Authorities in southeastern Pennsylvania say a man created a toxic gas to kill himself inside his car.

Investigators say the unidentified man's body was discovered Monday inside a car in a field near West Chester. A sign posted on the car warned bystanders not to approach because of the danger of the gas.

Authorities say the man died of exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas. Hazmat crews took more than six hours to vent the vehicle and remove the man's body.

A dead body in a car - and a note warning people not to come near - kept neighbors guessing and a street barricaded for hours Monday as emergency vehicles and personnel in white hazmat suits converged on a spot in Pennsbury Township, Chester County.

Patty Mains, a spokeswoman for Chester County's Department of Emergency Services, said a 911 call about 12:30 p.m. suggested that a man's body inside a car was a result of "chemical suicide." The car was on Hillendale Road.

Neighbors said the car apparently veered down a gravel path into a nearby field. A neighbor who was walking his dog made the discovery - and saw a written message that warned him not to open the car door, he said.

Little could be learned about whether dangerous substances had been found in or around the car. State police from the Avondale barracks said they would have no public information until their investigators completed work at the scene. At 7 p.m., the troopers were still there.