Police are investigating a possible drug-related overdose after a man died Wednesday night at a Capitol Hill gay sex club.
According to the Seattle Fire Department, the 47-year-old man died Wednesday night at Club Z after being found unconscious and not breathing in the club’s steam room. Firefighters and paramedics spent 35 minutes performing CPR before the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police are investigating the death as a drug related overdose.
The death is the first CHS has reported at the club since two incidents last fall.
Is there any other establishment in the city where this many people have died? Should the city be doing more to police this or shut the place down?
What self respecting gay man would go to this place when there is another place right up the block that doesn’t have problems like this? The management here clearly doesn’t know what they’re doing with incidents like this every few months. It’s dirty, homeless druggies run rampant and people keep dying. What a terrible blight on our fine city.
I don’t agree with it but it’s a private club – people know what they’re getting into when they walk through the door. It’s not like a grocery store where people just happen to be dying while picking out produce.
All bathhouses (and even gay bars) have issues with people doing drugs… it’s a matter of how the staff are trained to handle situations like that.. to spot trouble customers and get them out (by kicking them out, or calling EMTs). Club Zs staff obviously isn’t trained at all. Do they ever check this steam room? The other bathhouse on the hill checks theirs like 10,000 times a day to make sure people are ok (I know, I go there for bear day)
Enough is enough: shut this dump down already.
The staff at Z is “trained” on what to look for. They just don’t care. They know who the dealers and users are. To them, the money they make on all the druggies who frequent the place is more important than making sure nobody dies– or at least dies in their establishment. It’s a peer thing, too. If so many other there are doing it, nobody shuns the ones who are.
I have lived in this part of the hill for years, and I can remember at LEAST one death happening here every year….
I mean I’m all about business freedoms and all, but there’s totally un-safe activities going on. Something NEEDS to change at this establishment.
@SeattleCb…it’s not just bathhouses and gay bars that have trouble with drug use… basically every other bar on the hill. let’s try not to be close minded here, folks. y’all might not agree with stuff like this, but to each their own.
This is the third death in a year?! Any club with that kind of record would be shut down by now. This place is a public health menace as is Steamworks (they have just as much of a drug problem). These places are nothing but shooting galleries. Either start regulating the crap out of them or shut them down. It’s unfortunate that for many young gay men coming to the big city for the first time these places are sometimes their first interaction with other gay men. They are right off the bat introduced into the meth culture where these vultures intentionally infect them with HIV, syphilis, etc. We as a community need to quit pretending this isn’t happening and demand that our public officials address this problem in our community, immediately!
Have you ever even been to Steamworks? Judging by your comments, I’d say not. Look at the online reviews of the two clubs and it’s plain to see that Club Z’s drug-related problems are well known (or maybe you could ask anyone in the community who actually has experience going to the baths). I’m not denying that hard-drug users occasionally wander into Steamworks, but our vigilant bag-checks and zero tolerance policy more often than not keep those elements out of the club.
Ugh, sorry for the typo in the original subject line. I have been to Steamworks and um, bull crap is all I have to say about that. Steamworks is a shooting gallery. Period. Anyone who says otherwise is a big fat liar.
You don’t like bathhouses? Don’t go to them. And while clutching our pearls over “the young gay men” who are so terribly victimized makes you sound noble and “community-oriented” it’s just a cover for typical puritanical Seattle groupthink. Yeah, Z’s a mess, but no one is forced to go there.
I have been going to Steamworks (nee Club Seattle), on and off since I was 25 – almost twenty-five years ago, starting right at the height of the epidemic, and I have managed to stay HIV negative, STD free, and have never once used meth. and I’ve had a good time. It’s just about being aware and responsible.
Yeah, some guys go to the baths looking for unsafe activities, and that can include drugs, but not the majority of guys. Most are just there to get off, or just be in a sexualized environment. Steamworks is pretty strict about no drugs or booze, and It’s also pretty clean.
In any event, I’d rather have a dozen Steamworks – or even Club Z’s – for guys to discreetly take care of their business than the creepy line of old men sitting in their cars at Volunteer Park.
The problem is that the guy was on drugs. It has nothing to do that there is another private club around the corner. But the staff and management should be investigated they aren’t paying attention as guys walk in. It is my believe that when patrons enter they are already under the influence of drugs and alcohol and they probably only use more at the club.
“Seriously”, you are seriously full of crap– “Period”. Not even close, no question about it, Club Z has a WAY worse problem with drugs than Steamworks. WAY worse. That’s not to say there aren’t people at Steamworks doing drugs– There are. But it’s WAY worse at Z, and the dealing is more brazen. Steamworks tries harder to keep out the drugs and druggies. They’re not 100% successful, but they do a better job than Z. It happens, but it’s more discreet, and way less “peer acceptable” than amongst Z’s customers. It’s also not just the establishment, it’s the customers. The heavier-drugging guys go to Z because they know more there are doing it.
We have a zero tolerance policy at Steamworks as far as drugs are concerned. Anyone caught with, doing or on drugs is 86’d from the club. Do people sneak drugs in and do them in their rooms? Absolutely. But, any hotel or bar has the same issues. The difference between us and Club Z is that we don’t just look the other way and let people do drugs in our club.
Yeah two years ago my friend died at Steamworks in the sauna shower,and prior to his death I was on hand for three others,since then I haven’t seen or heard of any others,
Everyone should stop putting blame on the clubs, if people are to overdose on drugs they will find a way, sex club,bar, someone house, alley way, it not the clubs responsiblity to tell someone how to live,people make there own choices and have to live or die from them.