A Chicago comedian met a horrible death after falling 22 feet into a scalding hotel smokestack reportedly in an effort to take pictures of the city for his Instagram…

The victim survived long enough to send a SOS text message.

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23-year-old Nicholas Wieme, who appeared frequently as a stand-up comedian, was on a romantic date with his girlfriend when he decided to climb the smokestack of Chicago’s landmark hotel, The Intercontinental, to snap some pictures for his Instagram, when he suddenly lost his footing and fell inside the burning chimney.

Wieme fell 22 feet into the scalding chamber but was still alive and able to fire-off a 911 text message to his girlfriend, but by the time firefighters arrived and freed him, he was dead. “It turned very precarious because two feet after we made the hole was a drop that would have went 42 floors to the basement,” said Fire Chief Michael Fox.

Firefighters summoned to the scene ended up cutting a hole in the steel duct work and inserted wood beams to prevent Wieme from falling another 400 feet. He was then slid down into the opening and removed him from the chute and pronounced dead at the scene.