Homeless Are 1% Of Maricopa County Population, But Made Up 20% Of Deaths In 2024 At Arizona Burn Centers - It's That Hot
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Phoenix, the hottest city in the United States in the summer, is one of the most extreme examples of a threat that is growing across the country: unrelenting heat. Summers have always been sweltering there, but climate change has made them worse. In the early 20th century, highs there typically reached 110 degrees fewer than 10 days a year. Last year, it happened 70 times; this year, more than 30 already. Nine of the city’s 10 hottest years on record have come since 2010. Nighttime lows have risen, too, making it harder for heat-stressed bodies to recover.
Everyone is affected, but especially the unsheltered. They are highly vulnerable to dehydration and heatstroke. They sustain burns from sleeping on the scorching asphalt. Some get itchy from sweat and scratch themselves, causing infections. Their hearts and kidneys struggle. Their behavior becomes erratic. One study published last year found that in the Las Vegas area, a staggering 49 percent of deaths among homeless people from 2015 to 2022 were attributable to heat — far higher than the percentage among the general population.
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Such injuries are increasingly common, and not just for homeless people. A study led by Dr. Kevin Foster, the director of the Arizona Burn Center at Phoenix’s Valleywise Health hospital, found an association between rising temperatures and the frequency and severity of burns at his center over 16 years, and he said the increase had been especially sharp in the last four. The study identified 105 degrees, common in Phoenix, as a particularly dangerous threshold. Surfaces like asphalt can reach 180 degrees under searing heat and cloudless skies, causing severe burns almost instantly. Dr. Foster said people passed out from the heat and burned themselves “all the time.” Others trip while walking their dog. Toddlers burn their feet by running out barefoot.
Robert Woolley needed seven surgeries after falling near his pool. Mr. Woolley, 72, put his hands out to catch himself, but the rocks were so scorching that he pulled them away as instinctively as recoiling from a stove, and his body hit the ground. His forearm turned black, his hands peeled “like the skin of an onion” and he left charred skin behind as he dragged himself to the door.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/well/homeless-heat-phoenix.html