On the hottest days, an additional engine is often dispatched to fight fires as a safeguard against the draining heat’s effects on fire crews.
After a relatively mild and wet winter and spring, heat calls to the Phoenix Fire Department are higher this summer compared with last year, a department spokeswoman said.
The department said it did not yet have precise figures, but a digital readout of all the active fire calls around Phoenix offered a glimpse.
At 3 p.m. on Saturday, about one of every 10 calls was from someone overwhelmed by the day’s heat.
There was a dehydrated 69-year-old hiker who had to be wheeled off a trail near the cowboy-inflected town of Cave Creek.
Persons:
Captain DiCosmo, Deirdre
Organizations:
Phoenix Fire Department, Phoenix, telltale
Locations:
Cave