{"id":487640,"date":"2026-10-07T03:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T03:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/487640\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T03:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T03:54:10","slug":"county-data-show-record-heat-related-911-calls-where-and-who-is-calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/487640\/","title":{"rendered":"County data show record heat-related 911 calls. Where and who is calling?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Within the first nine months of the year, 911 calls for heat incidents in San Diego County have already exceeded heat-related totals from all of last year, according to county data.<\/p>\n<p>As of Sept. 17, the county received 378 emergency calls, 131 more than all of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Calls spiked during two major heat waves this year: 35 between March 13-21 and 62 between Sept. 7-11, according to the data. On Sept. 8, the county recorded 23 calls \u2014 the most in a single day.<\/p>\n<p>But the totals could be undercounts, said Willy Melendez, the city\u2019s deputy fire chief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen calls come in, we don\u2019t necessarily (know) unless they\u2019re very specific on the 911 call that they\u2019re heat-related,\u201d he said. \u201cThey can come in many different forms, such as headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness or just general malaise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791345250_340_thumbnail.jpeg\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"map visualization\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Melendez said first responders expect calls to keep climbing during the current heat wave. The National Weather Service issued an <a href=\"https:\/\/forecast.weather.gov\/showsigwx.php?warnzone=CAZ043&amp;warncounty=CAC073&amp;firewxzone=CAZ243&amp;local_place1=2%20Miles%20NNW%20National%20City%20CA&amp;product1=Extreme+Heat+Warning&amp;lat=32.6985&amp;lon=-117.1168\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">extreme heat warning<\/a> for coastal areas over the weekend through Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s total 911 calls between Friday and Sunday don\u2019t show how many were heat-related, but calls went up, the county\u2019s data showed, as temperatures surpassed the 90s near the coast and 100s across inland and foothill areas over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a significant increase in our call volume Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with Saturday being the peak of our increase,\u201d said Melendez. \u201cOur total calls coming into our dispatch center for the metro zone was up 42%, with 925 calls being taken in the 24-hour period. The total number of incidents within the city of San Diego just on Saturday, Oct. 3 was 729, which is a 41% increase as compared to the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several of those calls resulted in hospital visits. On Saturday, more than 400 people were transported by ambulance to a hospital, an increase of 30% from the same day last year, according to the city.<\/p>\n<p>In anticipation, Melendez said the city has added additional ambulances on the streets and extended cooling center hours. <\/p>\n<p>Most 911 calls this year are coming from neighborhoods in the city of San Diego. A majority came from people between the ages of 15 and 44. Men accounted for 231 of the 378 calls, the data showed.<\/p>\n<p>San Diego County public health officer Dr. Sayone Thihalolipavan said that may be because, \u201cWe have a lot of folks who are working in San Diego outdoors. We have folks who are playing, you know, sports and things like that outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the public can prevent heat-related health problems by staying hydrated with electrolytes, wearing loose clothing, avoiding outdoors as much as possible and seeking places with air conditioning. The county offers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandiegocounty.gov\/content\/sdc\/hhsa\/programs\/phs\/PublicHealthPreparednesandResponse\/cool-zones.html\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cool zones <\/a>and transportation can be provided by calling 211.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Within the first nine months of the year, 911 calls for heat incidents in San Diego County have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-487640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}