Idaho’s Hot Weather Contributes To Deaths

Idaho lacks the humidity which plagues other states in the summer but the dry heat can still be a killer, especially among the very young and old.

Ada County officials are investigating the death of Kim Gillis’ 23-month-old son, Andrew. She left him in her car for a time on Wednesday evening. He died of heat stroke the next day.

Gillis, 26, of Nampa, disagrees with police on how long she was inside, but she returned to the Buick to find him sick.

Ada County Coroner Erwin Sonnenberg said temperatures inside a closed vehicle can reach 130 degrees.

“We’re still establishing time frames, but it was a minimum of half an hour,” Ada County Sheriff’s Sgt. L.D. Smith said Friday.

Gillis told acquaintances it was more like 10 minutes, but investigators stood by their estimate.

Since June 1, 19 people have been treated for heat-related illness at Boise hospitals. At least two were sick enough to be admitted.

The city’s hot weather may have contributed to two more deaths.

Diana V. Deimel, 69, was dead for as long as two weeks when the building manager found her in her stifling-hot Boise apartment on July 19.

Six days later, retired journalist Robert D. VanBuskirk Jr., 64, died in the same rent-subsidized apartment building.

They died of hardening of the arteries and emphysema, respectively.

No autopsies were conducted, but summer heat probably contributed to their deaths, Sonnenberg said Friday.

The two lived without air conditioning at the Bannock Arms, a federally subsidized apartment building for low-income elderly.