Heat may be cause of three deaths

Mary Manning and Ed Koch

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 | 11:10 a.m.

Three men found dead in the last week, including a man visiting a friend's home Monday, may be victims of the current heat wave, authorities say.

Also, three elementary schools were forced to close Monday when the air conditioning systems broke down during record heat.

A temperature of 116 degrees scorched the valley Monday, a record high for the date, National Weather Service forecaster Larry Jensen said. The old record of 115 degrees was set in 1979. And the low of 92 degrees Monday broke the record for highest low temperature, set in 2003 at 88 degrees.

Temperatures are expected to climb to at least 115 degrees today and Wednesday, forecasters said.

Metro Police and paramedics suspect that heat overcame a Las Vegas man found dead in a home in the 1900 block of D Street about 5 p.m. Monday, Lt. Chris Carroll said.

The Clark County coroner's office identified the dead man today as David Cheney, 42, noting he was visiting a friend's home when he died. An autopsy is scheduled for today to determine if heat played a role in his death.

Whether the residence had a working air conditioner was unknown.

The coroner's office also has conducted an autopsy on a man who was found dead in a parking lot early Monday. His identity was not released pending notification of relatives. The cause of death is pending the result of toxicology tests, which take up to two weeks to return from the lab.

The fact that the man was found outdoors has authorities looking into the possibility of heat causing or contributing to his death.

The current seven-day heat wave also may have contributed to the death of Terry Lee Walker, 44, address unknown, who was found dead Wednesday on the ground near East Charleston Boulevard and Eastern Avenue.

The coroner's office said it also is awaiting toxicology tests in this death to determine the cause.

Last year heat caused 14 deaths, while so far this year, five heat-related deaths have been recorded, all of them before last week, the coroner's office said.

Also, the Clark County Fire Department has responded to triple the number of heat-related calls over the same eight-day period last year, department spokesman Bob Leinbach said.

From July 11 through Monday, the fire department that handles calls from the unincorporated areas of the county, including the Las Vegas Strip, had dispatched paramedics to 31 heat-related incidents, Leinbach said, noting that nine of the calls were on Saturday.

By comparison, county fire department paramedics were dispatched to 10 heat-related incidents between July 11 and 18 last year.

To try to avoid having to call paramedics to schools where the air conditioners have broken down, Clark County School District officials have been sending students home until they can get the classrooms cooled down again.

Marion Earl Elementary, at 6650 W. Reno Ave., closed around 9:30 a.m. when the air conditioners quit running. J. Marlan Walker Elementary, at 850 Scholar Street in Henderson, also sent students home when the air conditioners quit working around 11 a.m. Myrtle Tate Elementary School, at 2450 N. Lincoln Ave., also closed a little after noon because the air conditioner malfunctioned, district spokesman Albert Jones said.

All three schools were scheduled to reopen today with working air conditioners. The chiller was still being repaired at Tate this morning, though the blower was working, Jones said.

Shortly before 9 a.m. today, the principal at Variety School, 2601 Sunrise Ave., sent 20 of the school's 118 students home when the air conditioners failed in four classrooms, Jones said.

The weather service's Jensen said he was not surprised that the multiple days of excessive heat was burning out air conditioners and may have killed at least three people in the valley so far.

In some parts of the valley, temperatures as high as 122 degrees were reported Monday.

Adding to the temperature woes, summertime air pollution intensified.

Ozone, a summertime air pollutant that forms a brown cloud when partially burned fossil fuel fumes combine with sunlight, reached unhealthful levels for sensitive groups in the northwest valley late Monday, according to the Clark County Air Quality and Environmental Management Division's Web site.

Clark County Air Quality officials issued an ozone advisory through Thursday as ground-level ozone levels rise during continued sizzling afternoon hours.

Ozone is a gas that occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere and protects Earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.

But near ground level, ozone is a key ingredient of urban smog during hot summer months.

Unhealthy doses of ground-level ozone can reduce lung function and worsen respiratory illnesses such as asthma or bronchitis. People exposed to ozone experience coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath, even in healthy people.

Officials recommended that everyone, especially those with respiratory problems, reduce strenuous outdoor activity for the next three days.

The Weather Service extended the excessive heat warning for Southern Nevada, southeastern California and northwestern Arizona through Wednesday.

Nevada Power Co. customers set a new peak for electricity use at 5,587 megawatts on Monday, breaking the old record of 5,557 megawatts set Sunday, company spokeswoman Sonya Headen said.

It's the fifth time in seven days that Nevada Power has recorded a new peak, Headen said.

Although no rolling blackouts are expected, Nevada Power crews have replaced more than 200 transformers in residential neighborhoods since last Wednesday, Headen said.

"It's just like when cars run constantly, they burn out," she said.

One hope for a break in the excessive heat spell rests with a hurricane spawned thousands of miles away in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Weather Service locally is keeping tabs on Emily. What is bad news for Mexico could be good news for Southern Nevada. Moisture from the hurricane could reach here by late Friday or Saturday.

Hurricanes in the eastern Pacific, which hit Mexico's western coast and generally spill moisture into Southern Nevada during what is called the monsoon season, are not in sight at this time. Without the monsoon moisture there is little to control July and August heat.