UPDATE, 9:10 p.m.: The person who committed suicide today at the Berkeley City Club was an 80-year-old woman who killed herself in her room using sodium azide, according to the Oakland Tribune. The woman lived in an apartment on the third floor of the landmark building, police officer Ethell Wilson said. The Tribune also reported that the woman left a note warning authorities of the dangerous situation. Sodium azide, a colorless salt, is the gas-forming component in many car airbag systems. When mixed with water it is acutely toxic. 
 
 Despite this report, it is unclear, however, how, or if, the woman was affiliated with the Berkeley City Club. In an email to its members sent out just before 9 p.m., the club said “no Member, resident nor team members were involved nor in harm’s way.” 
 
 ORIGINAL STORY: Berkeley Police are investigating a suicide that appears to have involved a potentially hazardous material at the Berkeley City Club on Durant Avenue. 
 
 According to Berkeley Police Sgt. Joe Okies, three agencies — Berkeley Police, Berkeley Fire and the University of California Police Department — have been working in unison since around 2 p.m. today to remove the suspicious material before the coroner could come on scene. 
 
 Okies could not say what the suspicious material was, or provide details about the deceased person, while the investigation was ongoing. 
 
 Berkeley City Club, at 2315 Durant Ave., between Ellsworth and Dana streets, has been evacuated and all traffic and pedestrians are being forced to take detours from the 2300 block of Durant. AC Transit buses have also been diverted. 
 
 The call about “a person down” came in at 1:56 p.m., Okies said. “Emergency services responded and discovered what appeared to be a suicide involving hazardous materials,” he said. “There was a coordinated effort to remove the material.” 
 
 At 6:30 p.m the coroner was not yet on scene. The joint command was taking steps to make the building safe. 
 
 “The known quantity of what appeared to be a hazardous material has been removed,” Okies said. He confirmed the suicide took place inside the Berkeley City Club, but said he could not be more specific. 
 
 The death investigation was ongoing at 6:30 p.m. and the 2300 block of Durant was still closed, due mainly, said Okies, to the large quantity of vehicles and equipment situated there. 
 
 Berkeley Fire also responded initially to the incident, according to Deputy Fire Chief Avery Webb. But, he said, “it was determined to be a component that made it a law enforcement situation, so [police] assumed control of the situation.” 
 
 The Julia Morgan-designed Berkeley City Club is a hotel and private social club with an indoor swimming pool and a restaurant, as well as a hair salon and meeting spaces. 
 
 This story is being updated as new information became available. 
 
 Follow Berkeleyside on Twitter and on Facebook where we often break news. Click here to subscribe to Berkeleyside’s free Daily Briefing. ||||| BERKELEY -- Hotel guests and residents of the Berkeley City Club were evacuated from the historic building Tuesday afternoon after a woman used a toxic chemical in her room to commit suicide, authorities said. 
 
 Police spokesman Officer Ethell Wilson said hazardous materials crews and bomb squad technicians responded to the call on the third floor of the six-story landmark shortly before 2 p.m. The victim reportedly left a suicide note outside her apartment alerting first responders to the hazardous situation, police said. 
 
 The name of the victim, a woman in her 80s, was not released. Wilson did not know how many people were evacuated, but there were no reports of injuries Tuesday evening. 
 
 Police closed Durant Avenue between Telegraph and Shattuck avenues for several hours while crews investigated. It was not immediately known if the toxic substance -- sodium azide -- had contaminated the entire building or the one unit. 
 
 Check back for updates. 
 
 Reach Kristin J. Bender at kbender@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/kjbender. ||||| TIANJIN, China Chinese soldiers and rescue workers in gas masks and hazard suits searched for toxic materials in China's port of Tianjin on Sunday as Premier Li Keqiang arrived to offer condolences, days after explosions flattened part of a national development zone. 
 
 The goal is to clear the chemicals before any rain falls, which could create further toxic gas. 
 
 The death toll rose to 112 from Wednesday's disaster, which sent massive yellow and orange fireballs into the sky, hurled burning debris across a vast industrial area, crumpled cars and shipping containers, burnt out buildings and shattered windows of nearby apartments. 
 
 The number of missing rose to 95, most of them fire fighters, state media said, suggesting the toll would rise significantly. More than 720 people remained in hospital. 
 
 Officials acknowledged the presence of toxins but said they posed no risk to people outside a two-km evacuation zone surrounding the blast area. 
 
 "I can responsibly say that there will be no secondary damage to the people," Shi Luze, the chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army's Beijing Military Region, told reporters, referring to people outside the zone. 
 
 Shi confirmed the presence of more than 100 tons of deadly sodium cyanide, stored at two separate sites. He said workers were trying to clear the area of chemicals before possible rain showers, which could create toxic gas. 
 
 Fire crews were criticized for using water to douse flames in the initial fire, which may have contributed to the blasts, given the volatile nature of the chemicals involved. 
 
 Greenpeace said tests around the blast site showed that water supplies were not severely contaminated with cyanide, but that they did not "disprove the presence of other hazardous chemicals in the water". 
 
 "Greenpeace reiterates its call for authorities to implement a comprehensive survey of hazardous chemicals currently present in air and water supplies and make public all information," it said. 
 
 In an earlier statement, the environmental organization urged the government to establish a five-km (three-mile) evacuation zone. 
 
 China evacuated residents who had taken refuge in a school near the site of the blasts on Saturday after a change in wind direction prompted fears that toxic chemical particles could be blown inland. 
 
 It was not clear from media reports how many people were evacuated, but the order came as a fire broke out again that day at the blast site, a warehouse specially designed to store dangerous chemicals, according to Xinhua. 
 
 Some 6,300 people have been displaced by the blasts. Shockwaves were felt by residents in apartment blocks kilometers away in the city of 15 million people. 
 
 China's top prosecutor, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, opened an investigation into the warehouse explosions, Xinhua reported, and "will look into possible illegal acts, such as abuse of power or dereliction of duty and deal with those acts which may constitute crimes". 
 
 About 100 people from a residential area near the blast site protested outside a hotel where a government press briefing was held, angry that dangerous chemicals had been stored near their homes. 
 
 "I'm very worried that these dangerous chemicals will harm my health," said Zhang Yinbao, who works in the chemical industry and whose apartment building is only 800 meters from the blast site. 
 
 For a warehouse the size of the one that exploded, that's closer to a residential area than allowed under laws that deal with the storage of dangerous materials, according to state media reports. 
 
 "From a legal perspective it's unreasonable that dangerous chemicals would be so close," Zhang said, calling for a thorough investigation and compensation. 
 
 Emotional family members of missing fire fighters - 85 of the 95 people missing - also protested, marching to district government offices where they scuffled with police before being dispersed. 
 
 Industrial accidents are not uncommon in China following three decades of fast growth. A blast at an auto parts factory killed 75 people a year ago. 
 
 (Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan and Natalie Thomas in TIANJIN, Writing by Michael Martina and Matthew Miller; Editing by Nick Macfie, Larry King)
– The landmark Berkeley City Club was evacuated yesterday after an 80-year-old resident used a toxic chemical to kill herself in her room. Police in the California city say Hazmat teams and bomb squad technicians were called in after a note was found outside the woman's third-story apartment warning of the danger, the Oakland Tribune reports. Police say a "known quantity of what appeared to be a hazardous material has been removed" and steps are being taken to make the building—which houses both hotel guests and residents—safe, reports Berkeleyside. The woman is believed to have used sodium azide, a colorless salt used as the gas-forming component in car airbag systems. It becomes extremely toxic when mixed with water.