AAA: Excessive Heat Could Harm Your Car
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Six days of scorching weather and an end is in sight. But it's still hot.
People around Baltimore describe how they're dealing with the heat as they anticipate those cooler temps.
Gigi Barnett reports highs in the upper 90s for six days straight felt like 100 degrees.
Health workers say it took a toll.
"People are coming in with heat related illnesses, especially the young and the old and those with underlying medical conditions," said one doctor.
This summer, heat has killed five people around the state.
"When they're exposed to extreme heat like we're going to be having, they can get those complications and actually die from that," said David Blythe, Department of Health and Hygiene.
While a cool down is coming, it's not fast enough for some.
"It's been extremely hot," said one person. "It's been a killer out here."
All week, the phones rang off the hook at AAA. Service demands shot up during the heat wave.
And the battery is almost always the problem.
"I could run normally six, seven calls a day and that could rise up to 10, 11 calls a day," said AAA repairman Gary Scollins.
"During the summer, the temperatures under the car can reach an excess of 140 degrees. This can actually boil the battery," he continued.
The city says it will keep its cooling centers open until the heat wave passes. Those centers offer free water and air conditioning to city residents.
AAA has also seen more cases of keys getting locked inside the cars because drivers turn on the car's air conditioning and then forget and lock themselves out.
