B.C. heat review: Coroner says more coordinated response needed after deadly 2021 event

It’s been almost one year since B.C.’s record-setting heat dome left hundreds of people dead, many of whom were seniors who sweltered in their homes, alone.

On Tuesday, Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe released a report into the deaths of 619 people, who died as a direct result of the heat.

The majority of the deaths were in people 70 years of age or older, and more than half lived alone. The majority of those who died lived in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health authorities.

Only seven per cent of those who died had an air conditioner in the home, but in most cases the unit was in a different room or improperly used.

“There was a lag between the heat alerts issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and public agencies and the public response,” Lapointe’s report reads in part.

There were also long waits for ambulances. For 50 people, paramedics took longer than 30 minutes to respond. Six people called 911 but were told that there were no ambulances available at the time of the call. In more than half of the calls, the average response time for paramedics to arrive was 10 minutes and 25 seconds.

“Essentially, people didn’t take it as seriously as we perhaps now think we should have taken it and we’re all guilty of that,” said Dr. Jatinder Baidwan, chief medical health officer with the BC Coroners Service.

“People dying from heat … It’s a failure of the health system. It’s a failure of the way that we live.”

The panel is also making several key recommendations which include the implementation of the broadcast intrusive alert for an Extreme Heat Emergency, wellness checks, and to consult with vulnerable populations.

“If someone knows that they’re about to suffer the effects of heat, then they can ask for help. They can actually get those that love them to come and support them in some way. They can ask for other agencies to help them,” Baidwan said.

“If someone doesn’t understand that heat is about be a real important factor in their lives at that moment, then they’re not going to personally start down that cascade of events that could make a huge difference to their journey in the next days.”

He adds better public messaging would help address a lack of awareness.

“How many of us actually realized that there was an actual significant heat event actually going on? Most of our thoughts are about getting to the beach and enjoying the sun, doing the things we want to do outdoors. Inclement weather in B.C. is not something that’s we have all the time … so we didn’t understand that there was risk associated.”

Health Minister Adrian Dix says many of the recommendations are already underway, noting this week the province announced it was implementing an emergency heat alert system, as the number of heat waves the province experiences is expected to grow in the years to come.

“The results of the corners review of the death panel review, show clearly who was most vulnerable, and some of the actions we need to take to protect and support them in challenging times,” Dix said.

“As a government, we’re committed to carefully reviewing and considering all the recommendations within the report.”

He also touted the province’s efforts in hiring more people to respond to an extreme weather event like last year’s heat dome.

“We’ve hired and trained 78 new call-takers and dispatchers, and 42 of those are net new. In other words, not replacing others. in urban communities, we created 125 new ambulance positions, 85 of those were hired in 2021, 40 were hired in 2022.”

Dix says since last year summer, the number of full-time employees has increased about a third from 1,931 to 2,592

By 2023, the province will ensure rebates are available for passive and active cooling measures.

Air conditioning challenges

David Hutniak with Landlord BC says older buildings don’t have built-in air conditioning systems, but new building codes call for that.

“For existing buildings, which is really the constituency we represent in the rental housing sector, we’re working with multiple stakeholders and with the provincial government and the health authorities. This is really a process, and our commitment is to look for these opportunities… but having said that, from our perspective, we want to make sure we have a responsibility to ensure the health and safety of our residents. As climate change becomes increasingly more challenging and the cooling issue, in particular, becomes more challenging, it’s just inevitable that we’re going to be making more and more investment in finding cooling solutions.”

However, he admits a number of changes his organization would like to bring in won’t necessarily happen overnight.

“I can say that more and more of our members, when they are doing significant upgrades to their buildings, like deeper retrofits, cooling is front of mind. So, when they’re evaluating how it’s done, what kind of upgrades we need to do to [the] electrical system to try and find a path forward to include cooling. Everybody is looking at that as a key issue.”

Last year, Lapointe suggested all new homes should have central air, and that existing ones be retrofitted to add air conditioning. Given that many apartment buildings on the Lower Mainland aren’t necessarily designed with extreme heat in mind, Lapointe said subject matter experts would be brought in to discuss how best to protect people.

“Given climate change, and we are experiencing different weather now — air conditioning will become something that is necessary in every new build, and we need to retrofit our older buildings,” she said in July 2021.

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Hutniak says there is no question the heat dome was especially difficult on people who live in apartment buildings, compared to other dwellings.

Given so many seniors died alone last summer, one local company says it’s hiring more staff as it continues to install air conditioners, specifically in long-term care homes.

“We’re actually just in the middle of doing an installation for a care-home, where we’ve installed air conditioning units all throughout and a lot of care homes are getting that done. A lot of people’s houses and even strata buildings, people are amending the by-laws in their strata’s to allow for air conditioning systems to be installed, so that’s another area where a lot of people are getting air conditioning now,” said Alex Milani with Milani Plumbing Heating & AC.

He says he’s hearing from customers who are worried about a potential repeat to last year.

“For a lot of folks, you don’t really think about these types of things until you experience that extreme weather condition and that discomfort,” he explained.

Milani, who’s the company’s commercial division manager, says they do have enough stock for the summer. However, he says it’s been tricky to come by.

“Getting air conditioning is definitely a problem, just from an equipment point of view. With COVID-19, global supply chain issues and other global events going on, we have noticed that it has been more difficult to get air conditioning systems and to try and combat that, we’ve been storing large amounts in local warehouses and stuff like that to make sure we have enough stock in place for this upcoming summer.”

Related article: B.C. announces extreme heat emergency alert system

He says people don’t appear to be picky in terms of what kind of system they want installed, whether it’s basic or something with all the bells and whistles. He stresses they just want access to cool air.

“Definitely, it’s a lot of senior folks who are getting them installed but really it’s just everybody that has had their eyes opened and realized that they do want air conditioning and they do want that comfort in the house as well. People from all kinds of demographics are really asking to have these installed in their homes,” added Milani.

No guarantees of eliminating heat deaths

Dr. Baidwan says B.C. is “absolutely” in better shape today compared to last summer during the heat dome, in terms of preparedness for such an event.

“Are we where we need to be? No. Can we get better? Absolutely.”

He adds there is no way to completely eliminate risk of deaths due to heat, “but we have to do our utmost to ensure that we absolutely actively eliminate as much risk as we can understand.”

“I think the recommendations that we made are near-term recommendations that will help eliminate risk today. There are longer-term and medium-term risk mitigation measures that are going to make sure that we build societies and communities and build our homes in a way that sensible, as we go forward,” he said.

“I think we are going to be able to mitigate a huge amount of risk. Can I guarantee that it’s never going to happen again? Absolutely not.”