Horry County Fire Rescue says they have had a higher than usual volume of calls to heat related sickness Wednesday. On any given summer day, they might get a couple of calls for heat illness. By Wednesday afternoon, they had gotten more than six times that.
Matthew Smith, chief of medical operations for Horry County Fire Rescue says they responded to more than twelve calls Wednesday. While some might think that the beach or pool were the best places to cool off, Smith says the majority of the calls came from people spending the day at the beach or pool.
"People tend to go to the beach in the mid morning and stay at the beach until lunchtime. They migrate off the beach and go get something to eat. {Then} they come back after lunch and migrate off again around suppertime. So the times just proceeding lunchtime and suppertime are the times when we usually see those heat emergencies," he says.
Most of the cases were for people experiencing dizziness, Smith said. Medics also had a few cases of people who were unconscious from prolonged exposure out in the heat.
Smith says that Horry County Fire Rescue medics are working 24 hour shift the next couple of days. They expect to see this high number of calls continue because people will still be feeling the effects of Wednesday.
"Hydration lasts days and days and days. You can't simply have a drink of water and then go outside and think you are hydrated," Smith said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, heat causes about 400 people to die each year in the U.S.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control says there are three type of heat illness. Heat cramps are the least severe, and are painful muscle spasms. Heat exhaustion, is the most common form medics said they saw Wednesday, which is caused by the loss of large amounts of fluid by sweating. The third type is heat stroke, which is life-threatening.
Here are some tips to avoid heat illness:
- Drink plenty of water. If you are doing an outdoors activity, drink 2- 4 glasses of at least 16 ounces of cool fluids every hour. Don't drink liquids that contain caffeine, alcohol or large amounts of sugar, these actually cause you to lose body fluid.
- Avoid strenuous activity.
- Take frequent cool showers or baths.
- Wear lightweight, light colored clothes.
- Limit sun exposure.
