Skip to content
  1. Home
  2. Local News

North Vancouver RCMP called to 5 sudden deaths during heat wave

B.C.’s chief coroner reported 719 sudden deaths over one week during the recent heat wave – three times the usual number
Brent Richter and Jane Seyd

North Vancouver RCMP responded to five sudden deaths during the recent heat wave that began June 25. That is approximately three times the number of officers that would normally be called out, said Sgt. Peter DeVries, spokesman for the detachment.

While the cause of those deaths is still being investigated by the coroner, they come at a time when B.C.’s chief coroner reported 719 deaths in the week between June 25 and July 1 – about three times the usual number of sudden deaths for that time period.

Of those, 193 of the deaths were in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, which includes the North Shore. June 29 was the most deadly day of the heat wave, when 72 deaths were recorded in Vancouver Coastal Health and a total of 295 sudden deaths were recorded across B.C. High numbers of sudden deaths were also recorded on June 28 and June 30.

In comparison, B.C. saw just three heat-related deaths in the five years prior.

Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said while the exact cause of those sudden deaths hasn’t been determined yet, in many cases “we have seen a significant increase recorded.”

"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," she said.

Most of the deaths were in the Lower Mainland, where air conditioning is less common and sky-high temperatures are unusual.

Older people living alone most likely to die in heat

Preliminary information has indicated those who died suddenly during the heat wave were more likely to be older people with underlying health conditions who lived alone in private apartments, with minimal ventilation, said Lapointe.

Both RCMP and firefighters in North Vancouver were pressed into extraordinary service to check on the well-being of older people and people in medical distress as ambulance services throughout the Lower Mainland were overwhelmed by the volume of calls received during the heat wave.

District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services Chief Brian Hutchinson said his department was definitely feeling the pressure.

North Van firefighters, police called out for heat-related distress

Over a typical five-day period, the crew would normally get about 30 to 40 medical incident calls, he said. In the five hottest days during the heat wave, they had 50, with most coming on June 27 and 28.

Normally, firefighters are required to stay with a patient until an ambulance arrives but there haven’t been enough paramedics to keep up.

Hutchinson said firefighters did transport an elderly patient to Lions Gate Hospital when fire crews felt that person’s condition was rapidly deteriorating.

“It puts us in a difficult position because that's not usually within our scope. … We always work hand in hand with our partners at BC Ambulance Service and at the end of the day, we have to make sure that the citizens that we're there to serve are getting the care that they need.”

The entire system has been under strain for the last 16 months, Hutchinson said. Emergency responders are still dealing with a pandemic and the opioid crisis, which both have taken a toll on front-line staff who are now burning out, Hutchinson noted.

“Then you get this kind of an incident-within-an-incident taking place and it’s just exacerbated a little bit further,” he said.

Those needing help tended to already be in vulnerable positions, even before the heat wave arrived, Hutchinson said, particularly seniors and people with health problems.

“Any number of underlying medical conditions that people already have tend to be exacerbated by the heat – especially individuals who may not have access to air conditioning or to a basement,” he said.

North Vancouver RCMP officers were themselves in a similar position June 28 when they were called to check on an elderly man in a Lower Lonsdale apartment.

Officers arrived around 7:30 p.m. to find the door ajar and the man unconscious “in very apparent medical distress,” having difficulty breathing, said DeVries. Police and firefighters gave first aid while on hold waiting for estimated ambulance arrival time. Police then made a “snap decision” to transport the man to hospital themselves, said DeVries.

DeVries said North Vancouver RCMP have received five calls to check on people specifically related to the heat.

City of North Vancouver Fire Chief Greg Schalk said calls his members have been dealing with tripled during the recent heat wave. The majority of those were heat-related medical distress calls. Schalk said firefighters have transported patients suffering heat-related illness to hospital on at least two occasions in recent days after triage nurses advised crews not to wait for an ambulance to arrive. "They advised that we needed to get to hospital as soon as possible," he said.

West Vancouver police were called to two sudden deaths since June 25, said Const. Kevin Goodmurphy, spokesman for the police department, but neither of those deaths is believe to be related to the heat.

On June 30, Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth defended his government’s handling of the heat wave, saying municipalities have been provided with money to open cooling centres and to pay overtime to firefighters and other staff to help deal with the crisis.

Farnworth acknowledged that the large number of heat-related calls from people in distress had overwhelmed the ability of ambulance paramedics to respond.

"We have broken records day after day for calls to emergency services," he said. “It’s clear we can’t rely on what we’ve done in the past.” 

Farnworth said 200 additional ambulance paramedics had been hired in the fall and later in the summer the government will be hiring "significant numbers more."

“The reality is we have never seen anything like this.”

The North Shore smashed temperatures during the heat wave, hitting an all-time high of 40.6 °C at 5 p.m. on June 27 at the West Vancouver Environment Canada automated weather station.

The previous record – set in 2015 – was 31.3°C.

June 28 was another scorcher with the thermometer topping out at 38.9°C.

In response to the extreme heat, cooling centres in air-conditioned public spaces were opened across the North Shore this week. Libraries in all three municipalities were providing a space to cool off. In the City of North Vancouver, an additional cooling centre was also opened at the Pipe Shop in the Shipyards District.

Additional “misting stations” were also opened in the City of North Vancouver at the City Hall plaza, and in Victoria, Waterfront and Moodyville parks.