The Price We Paid

British Columbia had a blistering hot summer. The heat claimed nearly 600 lives, most of those in the final week of June.

During the “heat dome,” temperatures rose as much as 12 C higher than normal in Vancouver. In the Interior of the province, the village of Lytton broke Canadian heat records when a temperature of 49.6 C was recorded on June 29. The next day, a catastrophic wildfire destroyed the town.

During the week-long heat dome, temperatures did not cool off much at night, meaning there was little respite from the heat, especially for people living in sub-standard housing with no air conditioning.

It’s the kind of event scientists say will become more common because of climate change.

Cities in Oregon and Washington were hotter than Vancouver but their death rates were considerably lower.

It’s not clear why so many more people died in British Columbia, but the heat dome did strain the emergency responder system to the breaking point. People waited on hold to speak to ambulance dispatchers, and firefighters and police found themselves stuck at calls for hours as they waited for paramedics to arrive, or — if the patient had not survived — for the coroner.

96 per cent of the victims died in their own homes.