The Region - News from Jan. 19, 1987

The possibility that an on-the-job death last week of a 39-year-old man at a Glendale pest control firm is related to a chemical spill there is being explored by authorities. Patrick S. Stevenson of Chino, sales manager of the Orkin Exterminating Co., was found unconscious in the firm’s parking lot and pronounced dead 90 minutes later at Glendale Memorial Hospital where a physician told authorities that Stevenson died of a heart attack that may have been caused by an “organic phosphate poison.” A spill had occurred earlier while the firm was relocating its office from South Glendale Avenue to Pasadena. Glendale authorities say results of toxicological tests on the victim performed during an autopsy that showed that Stevenson suffered from “severe heart disease” will not be known for about a month.