A man has died after he suffered serious injuries in an explosion earlier this week at an apartment building in the Austin neighborhood — the exact cause of which is still under investigation.
Shabron Robinson, 29, was taken to Loyola University Medical Center with extensive burns and pronounced dead Thursday afternoon, according to fire officials and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
He was one of eight people injured in the blast about 9 a.m. Tuesday near West End and Central avenues in the West Side neighborhood.
The explosion caused the top floor of the four-story building to collapse, filling the street with dust, bricks and debris.
The Chicago Police Department’s bomb unit was called to the scene as well as agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The cause of the blast was determined to be the “ignition of natural gas,” fire officials said. What caused the ignition was still unknown.
In a statement released Friday afternoon, Peoples Gas officials said service was working properly at the site.
“There remains no reason to believe any of our equipment — or any other part of our system — was responsible for the incident,” Peoples Gas said. “As a reminder, piping and appliances inside the building are the responsibility of building management and/or residents.”
The Department of Buildings had not received any recent requests for inspections, according to officials.
The building has been cited in the past but none of the violations would have “contributed to an explosion or structural failures,” according to the department.
