Canada Heatwave Kills Over 200 Across British Columbia

Canada Heatwave Kills Over 200 Across British Columbia
Canada Heatwave Kills Over 200 Across British Columbia
Scores of people have died in British Columbia, Canadian Province following an unprecedented heatwave that broke temperature records.

Gatekeepers News reports that Canada broke its temperature record for a third straight day on Tuesday – 49.6C (121.3F) in Lytton, British Columbia. The US Northwest has also seen record highs and a number of fatalities.

Police officers scramble to respond to 911 calls reporting unexpected deaths.

Gatekeepers News gathered that between 8:15 a.m. Monday and Tuesday, Vancouver Police responded to 31 such calls. Out of these, 29 were likely heat-related.

According to reports, there have been 65 unexpected deaths in homes all over the city, most of them due to the heat since Friday.

Sgt. Steve Addison said the Police received a flurry of calls Tuesday morning “as people are showing up in their parents’ house or relatives’ house and finding them deceased.”

As of 1:45 p.m on Tuesday, the Police department had already attended 20 sudden deaths and the is expected to have increased.

“It’s changing as people are discovering their loved-ones dead,” said Addison, who noted that police usually respond to three or four sudden deaths on a typical day.

Gatekeepers News reports that in Vancouver when someone discovers a sudden death, police and ambulance or fire rescue are sent to the home. Paramedics determine if the person can be saved, while police are tasked to investigate if the death appears suspicious.

“We have more reports that have been made to us that we have not been able to send officers to because they are currently at other scenes waiting for the coroner to take over the investigation,” said Addison, who noted that the heat-triggered situation is unprecedented in his experience.

“I’ve been a police officer for 15 years and I’ve never experienced the volume of sudden deaths that have come in in such a short period of time,” said Addison.

“This has been an extreme sudden spike in sudden deaths throughout the city all over the city.

 

Vancouver Police department is redeploying officers from other departments and calling in others from home to ease the backlog of calls.

Premier John Horgan who spoke about the impact of the heatwave on Tuesday, said: “This was an unprecedented heatwave, with records being broken day after day. The public was acutely aware that we had a heat problem. And we were doing our best to break through all the other noise to encourage people to take steps to protect themselves. But it was apparent to anybody who walked outdoors that we were in an unprecedented heatwave and again there’s a level of personal responsibility.

“This is a tragedy upon a whole host of others we’ve had to address over a number of months but I believe we did what we could to get the information out and we rely also on the public press and media outlets who’ve done a really good job in my mind, of making the case, telling people to be wary and we have our internet presence and social media doing that as well.”

Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe in a statement said, “The Coroners Service would normally receive approximately 130 reports of death over a four-day period. From Friday, June 25 through 3 p.m. on Monday, June 28, at least 233 deaths were reported. This number will increase as data continues to be updated.”

Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services said its call volumes spiked three-fold compared to earlier 2021 due to the extreme heat, toxic drug overdoses and the pandemic.

On Monday, Vancouver Fire attended 365 calls, including cardiac emergencies, heat emergencies and overdoses.

On the weekend, paramedics with B.C. Emergency Health Services responded to 187 calls for heat exhaustion and 52 calls for heatstroke.

“For comparison, last June we responded to 14 heat-related calls and so far in June 2021 that number sits at 304,” the BCEHS said in a statement.

On Monday, BCEHS responded to 248 heat-related calls across the province. 168 calls were for heat exhaustion while 80 were for heatstroke.

While the cases are still under investigation, police believe heat is a contributing factor in the majority of the deaths, said Cpl. Mike Kalanj, adding many of the deceased were seniors.

“We are seeing this weather can be deadly for vulnerable members of our community, especially the elderly and those with underlying health issues.”