A man in a heat-stricken suburb of Los Angeles and a woman with two young kids in Pomona were among the Californians desperately seeking cool shelter as extreme temperatures baked the state on Wednesday for an eighth straight day.
Temperatures were expected to top 108 degrees Fahrenheit in Sacramento, the state capital, and other inland valleys, and broke 100 degrees around the Los Angeles area.
Bales said he and his staff were walking the streets twice a day to hand out water bottles. Some people barely moved, he said, opening their eyes only to look at the volunteers and grasp a cool bottle. In Sacramento, hard-hit by the prolonged heat wave that started in Southern California and moved north over the Labor Day weekend, a high school football player collapsed. A local chain of fitness centers canceled classes, saying its air-conditioning system could not keep up.