Phoenix is the US’s deadliest city for heat fatalities while its urban sprawl makes it a concrete heat island
Last modified on Mon 20 Jun 2022 15.25 BSTt was mid afternoon when first responders found David Spell slumped and unresponsive under a bus shelter. The temperature outside was nearing 110F – the hottest day of the year so far in Phoenix, and 50-year-old Spell was disorientated, dizzy and dehydrated.
It was an uncomfortable night, with the temperature only dropping to 84F , and no breeze or running water to cool down. Since 2016, heat deaths have more than doubled in Maricopa county, which includes Phoenix, with unsheltered homeless people accounting for 40% of the death toll. Stacey Champion talks with the Phoenix Fire Department after meeting someone who seemed to be suffering from heat stroke, while passing out water and cooling towels to unsheltered neighbors staying in ‘the zone’ on 11 June.America’s fifth biggest city is the deadliest for heat fatalities with more than 650 heat deaths over the last two years.
At 4am one day last week, the Guardian accompanied an outreach team to the downtown zone where many of the city’s shelters and homeless services are concentrated, for their weekly count. Drugs like fentanyl and meth are common, so are gunshots.
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