Mag Mile Hotel Death: Man Dies After Falling Into Smokestack Of Chicago Hotel [Video]


CHICAGO, IL — Authorities say a 23-year-old man snapping photos on top of a hotel in Chicago died Thursday, after falling more than two stories down a smokestack.

According to CBS Minnesota, the unidentified victim was with his girlfriend on top of the Intercontinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue in an area is closed to the public. Police reports say the man, from Pipestone, Minnesota, was climbing the hotel’s dome to take photos when he fell 22 feet into the smokestack.

Police and fire crews responded to a call of a man jumping off the roof at 1:09 am and discovered the man was wedged into an angled portion of the smokestack.

Rescue crews were able to communicate with him by cell phone until losing contact about 2 hours later.

After initial failed attempts to remove the man by rappelling down the smokestack, rescuers eventually cut a hole in the chimney below the man and inserted wood beams to keep him from falling, authorities said.

“We had to send members from the top down on ropes to assess his condition. The whole time we’re monitoring the situation for toxic gases,” Special Operations Chief Michael Fox told the Chicago Tribune. “We found the best way to get out him was to go about two floors below, and we had to cut the duct work for the chimney, which was made out of steel. And eventually we ended up sliding the victim down into the hole and removing him from the building.”

After he was freed the man was taken in critical condition to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:15 am, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

ABC7 has more on tragic Mag Mile hotel death in the video below:

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