Eight of Maricopa County’s 608 heat-related deaths in 2024 happened in Chandler.

City staff and the Salvation Army are doing their best to minimize or eliminate that from happening this summer.

After the National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning for Friday and Saturday, Aug. 1-2, the Salvation Army announced it would opening its 10 heat relief stations throughout the Valley — where anyone can go for indoor cooling and hydration.

Riann Balch, the city of Chandler’s community resources senior manager, reported various statistics at a late-June council study session, showing how many people had been served by city services in just the first 51 official days of Chandler’s wing of county heat-relief programming.

“The people served are typically low-income, are often unhoused,

See Full Page