Photo by @bonanos
Both CBS News and SFAppeal are reporting this morning that a man was found dead inside his residence at 43rd Avenue and Clement Street near the VA Hospital. Police and fire found him after they responded to the residence for a welfare check just before 9am.
After discovering the body, police declared a hazardous materials situation in the apartment, which triggered an evacuation of other apartments in the building.
A hazmat crew was called to the scene, and the block of 43rd Avenue between Clement and Geary was closed to car traffic.
A little after 11am, reader @bonanos tweeted that residents were being allowed back into the building
Authorities have not indicated why the apartment was declared a hazardous materials situation.
UPDATE 1:59pm: SFWeekly reports that police spokesperson Sgt. Danielle Newman told them that “Emergency personnel located possible hazardous chemicals.”
UPDATE 7-3-14: The deceased man was Sam Young, a local photographer and videographer. The Examiner has more about him in this article. His cause of death is still unknown.
Sarah B.
I’m confused by this “found him after they responded to the residence for a welfare check”. Why or how would authorities respond to a residence in regards to a welfare check?
Also, what type of man? Did he die of natural causes or was the evac due to drugs that killed him?
Welfare check means someone outside the residence was unable to contact him and was concerned. It could be because he had substance abuse, mental, or any other instability. Or maybe he didn’t show up to work and is always punctual. It sounds to me like a suicide and that questionable substances were found and they wanted to be on the safe side. Rip.
Apparently, the deceased is a japanese man working in the US and his mother requested the check after not being able to get a hold of him for several days. Also, per the local Asian news reports that the windows were tightly shut, drapes drawn and heat turned way up.
@Matt – Do you have a link to the story in the Asian news that you mentioned?
Sarah B.
From KTSF:
http://www.ktsf.com/en/news-video/?bcid=3635625010001
@Matt – That’s a video about a fire on Geary near 6th Avenue last week.
Sarah B.
The deceased man was Sam Young, part of the San Francisco gothic community. Not a Japanese man.
I took a number of pics of the 6th ave. fire along with a short report about it. Maybe if enough folks here are interested and ask nicely, Sarah will show ’em….
Firstly, I sincerely appreciate the explanation. Thank you. I was thinking of a monetary check, not a verb, and got confused.
Secondly, thank you for the video and more information provided by others.
http://www.ktsf.com/en/news-video/?bcid=3652600294001
They are streaming videos, so perhaps the “?bcid” number changes or perhaps the original poster had been watching other videos as well. However, I did find it easily enough from the initial link.
This does explain in Mandarin that a man named Osamu (Sam) Rowan Kasano Young, was removed from the building, and his name would indicate Japanese ancestry (reported by Nam Kwok). May he RIP.
HazMat might have been called in due to how long he had been deceased and the biological danger associated with enclosed decomposition. Two years ago, a neighbor passed away (he had only been deceased for a couple of days when it was cold and wet). It too was a result of a welfare check. This neighbor never continuously leave his lights on. Additionally, no one had seen him do his regular grocery run. Unfortunately, these things happen.
Now that my mother passed away in Texas, I worry about my father since he has heart issues. Fortunately, my father has set a plan in place in which we are to call the local EMTs if he does not return a phone call after 4 hours, during the day when we know he is home.
His name was Sam Young and he was a local photographer and videographer: http://samyoung.com.
Apparently the biohazard issue had to do with a project he was working on. He had a bunch of biohazard stickers around his apartment as a promotional gift for a Kick starter he was working on and likely had these authentic looking stickers stuck on something in his apartment. Probably no biohazard issue since he was alive and complaining to friends of chest pains on Saturday. So sad.
Here is more on Sam Young. RIP, sir,
http://www.examiner.com/article/bay-area-loses-talented-photographer-sam-young
@Phil & @lulu103 – Thanks for the links. Very sad.
Sarah B.
:^{
As to his ethnicity: his mother was 100% Japanese. His father was an American hybrid of English, Scottish, Irish, French, etc. His birth name was Osamu, but he went by “Sam.” I am the sister of his father. We await medical examiner reports. Until then, it is useless to speculate.
Has there been anymore info on this? I used to work with Sam and was shocked by this news. Looking for answers.
As someone very close to the deceased, I’d like to set the record straight before this article continues to drag a good mans name through the mud. No drugs and no suicide was involved. There is still no evidence to assume anything beyond that really. The SF ME process takes forever.
Is there any kind of service for Sam in SF?
I was a student of Sam’s at the Art Institute. I just learned of his death today. He was a great and funny man. His photographs were inspiring. I’m so sad to hear of his death.