Last summer, an unhoused man attempting to jump over a school fence to reach shade broke both his legs and died. In another case, a 73-year-old man fell while hanging his laundry and his body was found covered in burns and with a core temperature of 107 degrees. A woman also died in her $1 million Scottsdale home when the AC malfunctioned while a 33-year-old man collapsed and died while on a Saturday hike.
These are a few of the 403 people who died from a brutal heat wave that hit Maricopa County in July 2023, a summer marked by record-breaking temperatures that exceeded 110º F for 31 days straight.
