CHICAGO – A Chicago Train Authority (CTA) employee has died from complications of Legionnaires’ Disease after working with another CTA electrician on a train washing machine, according to CBS2.

The Aug. 11 story said the worker contracted the disease two weeks ago. He had been working on a train washing equipment when a blast of stagnant water struck him in the nose, mouth and face. The next day he became very ill with an extremely high fever.

The Legionella bacteria occurs naturally in the environment but can increase with warm re-circulating water, such as cooling towers. Symptoms include headaches, fever, chills, coughs and muscle aches and pains.

According to CTA officials, no other employees have shown signs of Legionnaires’ Disease, and, spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney said, “There is no evidence that the illness was contracted at CTA.” However, the CTA said it alerted 800 workers of the potential for contracting the disease and has shut down the train washing machine and similar devices.

Afterward, employees received another letter saying “while there was nothing to indicate that the disease was contracted at a CTA location and, in fact, the Dept. of Health said that the CTA did not need to take any action, the CTA decided to proactively hire an outside environmental firm to test and clean the equipment in question,” Gaffney said.