Six people in Cook County have died from heat-related causes in July so far, marking the deadliest stretch of extreme hot-weather deaths since at least 2015.
Victor Ferguson, 48, is the latest person identified who died in the heat wave this month. Ferguson died July 2 from heat stroke with ethanol intoxication as a secondary cause, according to new records from the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Four of the six people who died were younger than 60. In all, six July deaths have been logged in Cook County so far, the high temperature ranging from 88 to 95 degrees on the day they either died or were hospitalized, according to an analysis of National Weather Service data by WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times. During that first week of July, heading into the Fourth of July weekend, Cook County was under an extreme heat warning.
Besides Ferguson, the others whose deaths have been attributed to the heat are Stephanie Rodriguez, 45; David Gonzalez, 44; Barbara Whigham, 71; Mike Rodriguez, 57; and Daniel Machnikowski, 69, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Since Chicago’s 1995 heat wave that killed more than 700 people, the city has suffered through at least two other major deadly heat waves: in 1999, when 10 people died, and in 2012, when 22 died.
Marc Raifman, who works with the Extreme Weather Planners Coalition, said city officials should work with community members to examine the circumstances that led to the deaths this month.
“Why aren’t we looking at these cases, figuring out in some level of detail the same way they do in the medical field, what went wrong that led someone to experience a heat or cold injury that in some awful cases took their life?” Raifman asked. “And what can we do to prevent that next time and save the next person?”
Ferguson, the most recent heat-related fatality, lived in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. His family could not be immediately reached.
Neighbors recalled Ferguson living with his family in a limestone two-flat home. Air conditioning units could be seen on the first and second floors.
Neighbors said Ferguson often was seen walking his two dogs.
Neighbors of Rodriguez said he shared a home with several relatives. Rodriguez, they added, lived in the attic, which didn’t have great air circulation. An air conditioning unit could be seen mounted in an attic window Monday morning.
Relatives and friends of the others who died either declined to comment or couldn’t be reached, including a relative of Rodriguez who lived in the same home and declined to comment Monday.
One death happened in Evanston, and the other five people who died were residents of Chicago’s South and West sides. Communities in Chicago’s South and West sides are most vulnerable to extreme heat, said Daniel Horton, an associate professor at Northwestern University who helped develop a heat vulnerability index for the city.
Some of that vulnerability is tied to socioeconomic factors, like not being able to afford an elevated electricity bill to cool a home or not having an adequate air conditioning unit, Horton said. Neighborhoods with fewer trees also provide less shade during extreme heat, which is one reason community groups advocate for more shading near bus stops.
But a bigger issue to tackle is social isolation, Horton said, referencing one of the larger issues that came out of the devastating 1995 heat wave. People were more likely to have died if they weren’t connected to neighbors who could check on them or give them a fan or other materials to help them stay cool.
“That social infrastructure piece of it is also really key to increasing a community’s resilience,” Horton said.
Community groups have also pushed not only for a 24-hour cooling center but also for one that stays open during weekends or holidays, Raifman said. The city has standards for activating an emergency response due to weather, but those standards can feel unattainable, he said.
The city sometimes extends closing hours to 8 p.m. for its community service center at 10 S. Kedzie Ave., according to the mayor’s office.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office also said officials were closely monitoring high temperatures, adding that they consider police districts, libraries, community colleges and park district facilities to be part of citywide cooling efforts. In a statement, the mayor’s office said it was “deeply saddened by any weather-related loss of life in our city,” and offered condolences.
“There are leaders and individuals at the city who are certainly working hard, in the moment, to address these things,” Raifman said. “But I think what they lack and what we lack is any kind of advance planning and understanding of what gets deployed where.”
Contributing: Cam Rodriguez, Mohammad Samra, Alden Loury