Paris mortuaries overwhelmed as Europe’s record heat drives up death toll
With temperatures eclipsing 40 degrees Celsius, heat-related deaths are rising
Every few minutes, the mortuary owner’s phone rings. Since a record-smashing heatwave started taking lives and storage space for bodies in Paris and beyond, the funeral directors and mourning families calling him mostly have the same question: do you have room for one more?
With all 32 places in his cold room taken, Zouhaeir Hertelli reluctantly has to gently say “Non”, over and over and over again.
“We’re facing a really catastrophic situation,” he said. “I’m getting hundreds of calls.”
As the historic heatwave shifted its deadly temperatures eastward this weekend to other parts of Europe, France began counting the human cost it left in its wake.
The statistical and public health work of tallying heat-related deaths could take weeks or months. But it was already apparent that the toll exacted by the intense, unrelenting extreme temperatures was terrible in France, the first country hit from mid-June, particularly among older people who died at home.
“We’re dealing with an enormous spike of deaths because of the heatwave and we’re really full, full, full,” Hertelli said.
