LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Though the Las Vegas valley hasn’t hit its prime summer temperatures just yet, the heat can turn deadly for anyone inside a hot car. North Las Vegas Firefighters volunteered to give 8 News Now an exclusive look at how rapidly your body can react to the heat in a locked car.
“It gets so hot in these cars the kids can’t handle it,” Brian Kynaston, a firefighter and paramedic with NLVFD said. “They are flushed sometimes they get really red skin they are sweaty unfortunately when we get there they are unconscious.”
With a medic on stand by NLVFD showed us just how a few minutes inside a hot car can turn dangerous.
When they first got into the car, the temperature inside was 123 degrees.
“I’m already hot,” Dominic True, a firefighter who volunteered to sit in the hot car said. “It’s crazy because initially, it wasn’t that bad but three minutes in you are like it’s pretty hot. “
True’s blood pressure dropped within four minutes and his heart rate increased by an additional 15 beats per minute. Five minutes into being in the locked car, his temperate was 101 degrees.
“I’m starting to sweat now,” True said. “It’s starting to get toasty.”
After 10 minutes, the temperature was checked again and it read 107 degrees. That is when he decided he couldn’t handle it anymore and came out of the car.
“Within 3 minutes I started feeling the effects. I felt like my heart rate increased,” True said.
It only took a few minutes for True to feel sick. Now imagine if that was a child or pet left in a hot car, their chances of survival are slim.
The medics told 8 News Now the purpose of the visual was to remind parents and caretakers that you may think a quick 10-minute run to the store is OK, but it’s not if there is a child left in your car.