Calls for Aid in Washington Climb 20 Percent as Heat Suffocates City

Near 100-degree temperatures were expected to continue as medical workers prepared for more heat-related illnesses during celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

July 3, 2026


Capt. Sharon Moulton, center, and other emergency medical workers helped an unconscious person on Thursday in Washington, D.C.Clarence Williams

By Clarence Williams
Clarence Williams reported from the steamy streets of Washington, D.C., this week.

The heat was unrelenting. So were the calls requesting aid for maladies resulting from the 100-plus degree temperatures that have suffocated Washington, D.C., and much of the Eastern portion of the country, over the past few days.

For Sharon Moulton, a captain with the emergency medical services in Washington, that meant responding to about 30 calls on Thursday, crisscrossing the neighborhoods of Northwest Washington to render aid. ... “You could feel it on your skin, it was almost like a sunburn starting,” Capt. Moulton said. “Even the breeze was hot.”

The heat, under a cloudless sky, rendered a man unconscious on the sidewalk in Columbia Heights. ... Capt. Moulton slowly swiped a digital thermometer across the man’s forehead and tried to rouse him. ... “How long have you been outside today?” the E.M.S. supervisor asked, and the question was repeated in Spanish by a police officer. Both attempts proved futile; medics suspected the man was suffering from the results of too much alcohol consumption, sky-high temperatures and attire that included long pants and a hoodie.

“Hey, hey we’re going to get this off of you,” Capt. Moulton tried to tell the man, who finally moved his head but showed no signs of comprehension. ... Two thermometers read his body temperature as being close to normal, but in the extreme heat medics took no chances, placing cold packs under his T-shirt until an ambulance arrived to take him to a hospital. ... The patient was one of dozens that city medics were called to examine for suspected heat-related maladies and the associated morbidity concerns that extreme heat can trigger.

{snip}