The staggering number is 321 more than what is usually expected in B.C. over a period of five days, according to provincial coroner’s office — an increase of 195 per cent. The numbers are preliminary, and are expected to rise as more deaths are entered into the system.
“͞While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to the extreme weather B.C. has experienced and continues to impact many parts of our province,” chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said in a statement Wednesday.
The coroner’s office called the number of reported unexpected and sudden deaths in this period “unprecedented.”
Record heat eased for parts of British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories on Wednesday, but Environment Canada warned relief is still days away for eastern B.C. and the Prairies.
The village of Lytton, B.C., set a Canadian heat record Tuesday for the third consecutive day as temperatures reached 49.6 C, edging the 47.9 C mark set there Monday.
The heat forced some communities and cities in the Interior region to cancel or change operations. Kamloops closed a vaccination clinic due to a lack of air conditioning in the building, while the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc nation cancelled all events until July 5 because of the heat.
Dr. Sarah Henderson, associate professor of population and public health at the University of British Columbia, and the scientific director of environmental health at the BC Centre for Disease Control, called the numbers from the coroner “staggering” — even though it is a trend that deaths with rise with extreme heat events in Canada, such as the Montreal heat wave of 2011.
“What’s happening is people are overheating,” Henderson said, “And without knowing more because we don’t have the data yet, I’m going to hypothesize that a number of these deaths were due to very high indoor temperatures that built up during the heat wave.”
Places such as coastal B.C., where the weather is usually mild, may be especially susceptible to hazardous indoor temperatures, because many homes aren’t equipped with air conditioning.
Older people, precariously housed people, and people with health conditions, are particularly vulnerable to heat stroke, when the body stops regulating its temperature and internal body temperature rises rapidly, Henderson said.
Working in extreme heat can also be hazardous, and Henderson said she was pleased to see businesses in Vancouver close during the extreme heat event. She attributed the action, at least in part, to COVID-19 normalizing public health responses.
The weather office says the shift to cooler temperatures in B.C. is being followed by unsettled conditions, raising the chance of wildfires as intense thunderstorms are possible from B.C.’s southern Interior to northeast corner.
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