A few months after Phoenix created the first municipal office in the nation focused on heat relief last fall, the Office of Heat Response and Mitigation is preparing its plans for the summer.
Heat-related deaths in Maricopa County have risen 430% since 2014, from about 50 that year to a record 329 in 2021, according to the county’s Department of Public Health. More than half of those 2021 deaths either involved a Phoenix resident or involved a “place of injury” in Phoenix, said David Hondula, director of the city’s new Heat Response office.
“A typical case involves a man, often middle-aged, found outdoors, perhaps behind a building or fence, who is laying on a hot surface with no water nearby,” Hondula said about the data around heat-related deaths in Phoenix during last week’s Community and Cultural Investment Subcommittee meeting.
