It has become a matter of life and death in some parts of France. We’ve seen four children die, 55 or more people drown and hospitals on the verge of being overwhelmed, all while June records are being put to the sword. The heat is moving east and with it, the danger; meteorologists have put a number on it, saying some 150 million of us are in for temperatures over 35C.
You could call it the most far-reaching and hard-hitting heatwave in Europe’s history, scientists say, and they put it down to the kind of climate crisis you get from fossil fuels. It’s an ordeal for nearly half of the 850 biggest cities on the continent, where the heat is putting a strain on the very young, the old and those who have to work outside.
France counts rising deaths as heat squeezes hospitals
In Paris, where 40.9C was the mark for the day, police chief Patrice Faure has been blunt: we are at the limit of what our hospitals can handle. You’ll also see authorities have made it an offence to drink on the street to keep the medical emergencies to a minimum.
Then there is the human cost. In the south-east, two small children, one of them just two, were found in a car in Carpentras. Helene Mourges, the local prosecutor, says the heat is at the top of their list of questions as they look into what happened.
We had another case in Marseille of an 18-month-old with hyperthermia left in a car; the police think the father, who was working in the area, may have simply let his mind wander and not put the child in daycare. A three-year-old in a suburb of Paris died after getting in a parked car and being in for it when the lock held him in. And out near Bordeaux, three in their 80s and 90s didn’t make it through the heat.
Drownings surge as people seek relief
Lakes and rivers have been packed, and Sports Minister Marina Ferrari puts the number of those who have drowned at 55. She doesn’t rule out that it will be higher. Just this week we were given a separate count of 13 in and around the water.
Patrick Pelloux of the Association of French Emergency Doctors says he’s seen a sudden jump in the numbers. In a 24-hour period his services put 55 on the books. Normally you’d be looking at three or four.
Red alerts and daily life disruptions across two countries
Some 35 million of us in 49 of France’s 96 mainland departments are under the red flag. The message from above is to lay off the heavy lifting, put on some water and get out of the sun when it’s at its worst.
That means no Paris Pride, no march in Lyon, and the Solidays festival is off. It’s a way of keeping the crowds down so the emergency rooms don’t have to deal with the overflow.
Over in the UK, it’s been a washout for normality. The Met Office has us in for a third day in a row of record-breaking Junes – 37.3C in Santon Downham in Suffolk. London and the south-east are on red, with amber everywhere else in England.
Schools have had to close or put up a partial shut as it gets too hot in the classrooms. The railways have cut back to save the tracks. Firemen in Derbyshire are on a 200-hectare fire and in Kent you can’t even use a hosepipe. The London Ambulance Service has had its most demanding day ever for the kind of calls that mean life or death. “We expect it to build,” says Craig Harman, the COO, “for the next few days.”
Panic buying exposes Europe’s cooling gap
If you go to a shop in Chambray-les-Tours in central France, you can see the run on fans and portable air con in the videos making the rounds online. They were gone in a flash.
It’s a sign of how unprepared we are. Only in about 20% of homes in Europe will you find an AC unit – a quarter in France, less in the UK. And in the old stock like a Paris flat with a zinc roof, you can be sure the top floor is an oven once the hot weather lingers.
What authorities are urging now
With the heat here to stay, the advice is straightforward:
– Don’t overdo it outdoors when it’s at its peak
– Have some water and find a bit of shade
– Keep out of the direct sun in the middle of the day
– Heed the alerts and any bans in place
It’s a pattern we know well. When the mercury goes up, you see the trouble in and around cars, in the water, at big events and in older homes that hold onto the heat long after dark. With the front moving east and the ERs full, it may come down to how well the public follows suit before we see some reprieve.
