Nov. 20--A customer called authorities after walking into a business and seeing three men lying on the floor overcome by carbon monoxide fumes Friday afternoon, police said.
It happened at 3 p.m. at a business in the 3800 block of West Roosevelt Road in the city's Lawndale neighborhood, according to Officer Bari Lemmon, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police.
"The customer walked in and saw that everybody looked ill and called fire (Chicago Fire Department),'' according to Lemmon.
Ambulances took the three men to Mount Sinai Hospital -- the eldest of whom was in critical condition, said Lemmon. The other two were in serious condition.
Chicago Fire Dept. Chief Juan Hernandez said their initial call was for robbery or battery victims because whoever called saw three people lying on the floor of the dry cleaners, but when firefighters arrived, they found unsafe CO readings of 700 parts per million, which is "very high,'' Hernandez said.
The victims were all men approximately in their 40s, said Hernandez, who added their injuries are not life threatening, Hernandez said.
