PHOENIX — 30 new deaths were confirmed to be heat-related by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health Wednesday.
It brings the total number of heat deaths in Maricopa County in 2023 to 89.
Of those 89 deaths, 52 are listed as "heat-caused," while the other 37 were classified as "heat-related."
Almost 350 deaths are still under investigation for possibly being connected to the extreme heat.
July was the hottest month ever recorded in Phoenix, and multiple heat records went down during the month.
It's also proving to take a toll at the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's office. In late July, the office brought in coolers for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“July is always a tough month, but this is particularly bad,” county spokesperson Jason Berry said at the time.
In a previous interview with ABC15, Dr. Jeff Johnston, the Chief Medical Examiner for Maricopa County, said with the surge in death-investigation cases in July, it's "a pretty fair assumption" that July will likely record a record number of heat associated deaths in a single month.
The final report on heat-related deaths in 2022 was released last month. It showed that heat-associated deaths in 2022 were up 25% in 2021, from 339 to 425.
