The medical examiner’s office released new data this week that shows how deadly the month of July was as we saw record temperatures. The data shows that on July 20th, when temperatures reached 119º, 23 people likely died on that day alone.
ABC15 spoke with Dr. Jeff Johnston earlier this month about the medical examiner’s office seeing a surge in deaths. As the chief medical examiner for a decade, he sees a pattern to when people are more vulnerable to the summer heat: Temperatures that are above 110º on consecutive days. The consistent, high heat doesn’t give people a chance for recovery.
An increase in people experiencing homelessness also plays a role, he said. Preliminary data shows that about 60% of the potential heat-related deaths still under investigation seem to be people experiencing homelessness, he said.Maricopa County has seen an increase in heat-associated deaths every year since 2014. Last year, 425 people died, a 25% increase over the previous year.
It’s not just people dying outdoors but people dying indoors too as preliminary estimates show that 107 people died inside a residence in July. Along with people dying inside a residence some other common locations we found in the month of July were:A spokesperson for Maricopa County said Friday that they did not have to use the refrigerated coolers they brought in for additional capacity last month. They add that they will be removing them from their property soon.