Canadians pack into cooling centres to flee record-smashing heat
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A cooling centre in Vancouver where residents can escape the heatwave. The British Columbia Coroners Service reported 486 "sudden deaths" between last Friday and Wednesday, compared with 165 normally.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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VANCOUVER • Inside one of Vancouver's 25 air-conditioned cooling centres, visitors quietly read books or worked on laptops as the death toll in Canada's British Columbia province rose into the hundreds from a record-smashing heatwave.
"We've had heatwaves before, but not to this extent," said Lou, who provided only her first name.
"I'm shocked by how many deaths there have been. I have no air-conditioning, only a fan at home - I came here just to work where it's cool."
Canada's westernmost province has been scorched for days by record-smashing heat which reached 49.5 deg C in Lytton, three hours north-east of Vancouver, on Tuesday, surpassing its own previous national record a day earlier.
The heat has killed scores of residents, with the toll rising "by the hour", police said, while meteorologists warned of more extreme temperatures to come.
Among those mourned was the mother-in-law of infectious diseases expert Tara Moriarty, who said the otherwise healthy senior had been afraid to seek respite from the heat as she was only half-vaccinated against Covid-19.
"It's quite devastating," she said on Twitter. "My partner's healthy mum died of heat stroke in British Columbia on Sunday night.
"Heat stroke can kill very fast. If you have family, neighbours, friends afraid to seek cooler places (because of) Covid-19, check on them every couple of (hours) when it's really hot."
The British Columbia Coroners Service reported 486 "sudden deaths" between last Friday and Wednesday, compared with 165 normally, while Vancouver police said calls for help overwhelmed emergency phone lines.
"We've never experienced anything like this heat in Vancouver and sadly dozens of people are dying as a result of it," police sergeant Steve Addison said.
Vancouver cancelled schools because of extreme heat for the first time, while firefighters turned their hoses on anyone in need of cooling.
Meteorologists said the extreme weather is the result of an extreme heat dome above the Pacific Northwest, a normal summer phenomenon - but never this hot or early.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
