Last year’s deadly heat wave in metro Phoenix didn’t discriminate

By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — The victims of last summer’s staggering 31-day streak of daily temperatures reaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit and over were old and young, male and female, homeless and well-to-do, Black, white, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American. There was a 19-year-old man addicted to fentanyl who collapsed in a roasting alley. A 96-year-old military veteran died in the hospital after being found unresponsive in his home without air conditioning. More than 400 of the 645 heat-related deaths Maricopa County public health officials have confirmed for 2023 were during that wave stretching from the last day in June through all of July.