EMSA Ends Heat Alert After Nearly Two Weeks Of High Temperatures

EMSA has ended its nearly two-week-long heat alert after receiving 41 heat-related illness calls.

EMSA says it ends a heat alert when medics see a drop in both temperatures and number of heat related illness calls.

EMSA issued the alert on June 23 after getting five heat-related illness calls within a 24-hour period.

"During that whole time span, we had 41 heat-related illness calls that our medics responded to, and we transported 25 patients to the hospital because of their symptoms," said Kimberly Querry with EMSA.

Querry says medics are seeing all different ages be affected by the heat, but people who are struggling the most typically tend to be people who are working outside. 

"Those could be people who have jobs that are based outdoors or people who are doing yard work or maybe they're exercising outside, and they just don't take those heat precautions because they are normally indoors," she said.

She says it's a little early in the summer to be seeing these high numbers. 

"The majority of our heat-related calls will usually come around late July, August, sometimes even early September, but we're just early July, and we've already had, in the eastern division alone, 82 heat-related calls this year," she said.

Querry says medics are seeing a lot of people affected by the temperatures, so it's a great thing we're seeing a break in the temps.

"When you have these constant triple-digit temperatures, a lot of times it seems like you don't get a break, so it's nice to have the temperatures drop back a little bit and give ourselves a little bit of time to get accustomed, and then they are going to spike again," she said.

She says the precautions you should be taking in the heat are hydrating long before you go outside, wearing loose fitting and light-colored clothing and taking constant breaks in the shade or indoors.