Hot Weather Common Sense

Sad to say, some readers have seen dogs left in parked cars, where the temperatures can easily reach 130 in a matter of minutes in this extreme heat.  If you see a child or an animal in a vehicle with the windows closed, call 911 immediately!

A reminder of our post from a week ago, about cooling centers, water features and swimming pools.  If you need a cooling center today, call 311.  It's a wicked hot spell -- some say the worst it's been since the 1940s -- so be smart and take care of yourselves.  Please keep an eye out for neighbors, too, particularly if they aren't in a position to take care of themselves.

The Sun-Tmes has a graphic of cooling centers, with after-hours numbers.

With all the fireworks going off, and the dry grass, a couple readers reported seeing grass fires last night, particularly in the lots under the train tracks.  Seriously, folks, if you're going to set off firecrackers, use a paved area.  Let's not make a neighborhood in the middle of the city a brush fire area.