New policies could save lives in next heat dome, but so could community, say experts
Global News
Chief Jim Ogloff of the Coquitlam Fire Department said he believed the new emergency response system will make the province better prepared to face the next heat dome.
She died in the arms of firefighters.
The 96-year-old woman now lingers in the memory of Chief Jim Ogloff of the Coquitlam Fire Department, a reminder of the impact of last summer’s heat dome disaster on vulnerable residents of British Columbia.
“She was elderly, clearly in a lot of distress,” Ogloff said, recalling the efforts of his officers who attended an emergency call to the woman’s townhouse in late June 2021.
“They tried to cool her down…they were unable to transport her because she was in such frail shape,” he said, and the woman died before she could be taken to hospital. She was one of more than 600 who perished in B.C. in the weeklong heat wave of historic magnitude.
The legacy of their deaths can be found in a range of policies and proposals brought in since then to mitigate such a disaster in future, including a heat-alert system and calls to re-examine building codes. But the deaths of so many residents, vulnerable and alone like the woman who Ogloff’s officers tried to save, also points to the crucial role played by social bonds.
“It takes a community, let me put it that way,” said Prof. Kim McGrail, a population data expert at the University of B.C.’s school of population and public health, who served on the BC Coroners Service death review panel that released a report and recommendations this month about the deadly outcomes of the heat dome.
Strategies need to involve both the machinery of government and the compassion of neighbours looking out for each other to succeed, officials and health and community experts agree.
“Pragmatism, I think, is one of the most important things we should lean on here,” said Dr. Jatinder Baidwan, chief medical health officer at the BC Coroners Service, at a news conference releasing the death review panel’s report.
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