When it’s 116 degrees outside, a broken air conditioner is a life threatening emergency. Dozens of people died last summer in their own homes when their air conditioning went out. As the Valley braces for record high temperatures this weekend, a team of essential workers across the state will put themselves in danger of heat exhaustion to save lives.
Goettl service manager John Hudson says it’s surprisingly dangerous for technicians when air conditioning units go out on extreme heat days. Last July, an air conditioning technician died of heat exhaustion in the attic of an Avondale home.
“Compare it to sitting in a sauna and doubling the heat in a sauna," Hudson said. "Most of the time if it’s 116 degrees outside, we’re talking close to 200, 210 degrees in an attic. We recommend and teach our technicians, only 20 minutes at a time in an attic.”
In addition to technical training, service technicians in Arizona have to learn to manage heat stress.
"We constantly go through classes to understand heat exhaustion and understand hydration," Hudson said. "We provide ... electrolyte packets they can put in their water. We provide bottled water, that way they can fill up coolers and keep water on them at all times."
Excessive Heat Warning is in effect for this weekend. Forecast high temps today will near 115° and typically occur between 3-7 PM.
— NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) July 11, 2020
The best time to do anything outdoors will be very early in the morning. #azwx #cawx pic.twitter.com/lpzLtqpzU3
Supervisors also take an active role in ensuring technicians don't suffer heat-related illness on service calls.
"If they start to feel anything out of the ordinary, we teach them to climb out of the attic, get out, get in the air conditioning, cool off," Hudson said. "Let a supervisor know, that way someone can continue to check on them until they cool off."
The typical repairs often take less than an hour — but for a major repair, service technicians could be working in an attic for up to four hours.
