By JASON CAMPBELL
The Bulletin
The City of Manteca opened a cooling center hours before firefighters went to the rescue of an elderly man found suffering from the heat in the 300 block of North Main Street.
The man, who appeared to be in his early 80s, was tended by fire and ambulance personnel after he was discovered by real estate staffers Wednesday afternoon when the mercury had reached 103 degrees on its way to a high of 107 degrees.
First responders lifted him out of his motorized wheelchair and onto a gurney. The man was wearing a light long-sleeved, wool shirt over a sweater and a wool cap when he was found unresponsive. One witness said the man was sitting there when he went to lunch and was still there an hour later when he returned to work. It was unclear whether he was suffering from heat stroke or dehydration or both.
Within half an hour Escalon fire and ambulance personnel rushed to the aid of another man said to be suffering from heat stroke.
The city opened the Manteca Senior Center, 295 Cherry Lane, as a cooling center on Wednesday. It will be open again today from noon until 10 p.m. for the homeless as well as the elderly and others who may not have benefit of air conditioning to deal with the heat wave griping Northern California. Today’s forecast calls for 101 degrees with the temperature highs slipping into the high 90s on Friday.
After initially deciding to go with the recommendation of the California Office of Emergency Services and not open temporary day shelters to give people solace from the scorcher earlier this week, Manteca Fire Chief Kirk Waters announced Wednesday afternoon that the city ultimately did decide to contact volunteers and fire up the program shortly after noon on Wednesday.
According to Waters, the city will decide after Thursday whether they want to continue the program for another day based on weather forecasts.
Volunteers from the Community Emergency Response Team as well as Seniors Assisting Fire Efforts are staffing the site inside of the Manteca Senior Center – which is used for both cooling and warming centers when the weather hits the Central Valley extremes during the summer and winter months.
Inland portions of Northern California, including Redding, Chico and Woodland, are expected to have dangerously high temperatures for the rest of the week – affecting not only seniors or sensitive groups but anybody who doesn’t have access to air conditioning.
And the National Weather Service is suggesting that people exposed to those temperatures beach it until things cool down.
On top of finding an air conditioned destination and making sure not to perform any strenuous activities during the heat of the day, the organization suggests taking a trip over to the California coast where temperatures are traditionally always much cooler than the inland and valley areas.
Last year the Manteca Police Department spread the word about the cooling center to people on the street and known homeless populations, and volunteers from CERT delivered water to those who were for whatever reason stuck outside.
The cooling center is scheduled to close at 10 p.m. tonight but will stay open later if necessary.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
