2d ago

‘It happened so fast’: the shocking reality of indoor heat deaths in Arizona

www.theguardian.com

U.S. News @beehaw.org

Powderhorn @beehaw.org

1d ago

‘It happened so fast’: the shocking reality of indoor heat deaths in Arizona

www.theguardian.com /us-news/2025/aug/31/phoenix-heat-deaths

United States | News & Politics @lemmy.ml

FlashMobOfOne @lemmy.world

2d ago

‘It happened so fast’: the shocking reality of indoor heat deaths in Arizona

www.theguardian.com /us-news/2025/aug/31/phoenix-heat-deaths

United States | News & Politics @midwest.social

cm0002 @lemmy.world

2d ago

‘It happened so fast’: the shocking reality of indoor heat deaths in Arizona

www.theguardian.com /us-news/2025/aug/31/phoenix-heat-deaths

33 comments

which way did they vote, though? I don't really care about them if they voted for this stuff to happen
Drill baby drill.
“My mom lives paycheck to paycheck and if the AC breaks down in the summer and you can’t afford to fix it, you will die here. My dad proves that.”
Richest country in the world.
They say.
- Sure. Problem is, that wealth isn't spread out.
  
  I think that was the point?
It is surprising how quickly it can hit though. I had an AC unit break on me a 95 degree night while we were all sleeping. Woke up feeling like my whole body was melting and all the water had been drained. The animals took it way worse and were pretty lethargic for a few hours while we cooled them off
- My friend in Vegas said it's relatively common to have two a/c units so you have a backup. Is that a thing in AZ?
  
  Multiple units are common for a large house. Not because they want a backup but because there are limits to how many square feet a single home unit can handle. Having a 2nd story or basement can influence the decision too. It's often cheaper to put in two home units vs upgrading to a large industrial size like what a store might use.
  Obviously if you have 2 then one is a backup when you have a problem, but most people aren't going to have that.
  
  Multiple units is usually a matter of cubic feet, not backups. A single unit can only cool so much air, so larger houses often need multiple units to achieve enough cooling. It could also be an area control thing, like maybe the upstairs unit is separate from downstairs, so you can cool upstairs even when downstairs is already cool. Because hot air rises, so upstairs tends to be warmer.
  
  Not at all
Arizona is fucking crazy
I’m pretty sure the extreme obesity was the cause of death
- 87F(~31C) at 100% humidity is enough that the human body can no longer cool itself. 95F(35C) at any humidity is the threshold where the human body can no longer cool itself.
  100F indoors like that scenario, game over.
  It's a sliding scale in that zone. Doesn't matter weight or not.
  This isn't reddit, try harder.
  
  Morbid obesity was the underlying cause of death
  No one else died, honey. Immediate cause and underlying cause (root cause) are different, and important. If they had not been morbidly obese, they would not have died.
  The death certificate likely includes both obesity and heat stroke.
  Go back to whatever
  <lame insult>
  you came from.
- Obviously not. The cause of death was overheating.
- Contributing factor for sure, but not primary cause.
  
  Doesn't paint him in a very good picture. Morbidly obese and likes to play videogames with their 6 animals while his wife worked 3 jobs.
  
  No, as "hateful" as it sounds... I'd say primary cause as well. Nothing stopped them from walking to their neighbors house and asking them if they could stick it out there for a bit since their A/C went out... Well... except for the walking part.
  They had family coming and checking on him regularly. If he wasn't so fat that he couldn't get out of bed, he'd have just gone to their house... No? Clearly they cared. They installed a window A/C.
  Inaction over the course of 2 days is was killed this man, the cause of inaction was his weight. His family obviously determined that they couldn't move him... and he couldn't move himself.
  Edit: To the point, I also live in AZ. I have a really big solar install that lets me run my house off grid and islanded (with many hours of battery as well). I've told my neighbors they should come over during outages. People understand what A/C means here in this state. This family shouldn't have been blind-sided by the problem. It would have been his inability to get out of bed that limited options.

33 comments

Morbid obesity was the underlying cause of death