Heat Wave in New York: More Than 32,500 Con Edison Customers Lose Power

Ali Watkins and Ashley Southall

July 22, 2019 4:35 AM

NEW YORK — More than 32,500 customers were without power in New York City and Westchester as the third day of dangerously hot weather continued to grip the region, officials said. Fire officials said the soaring temperatures also may have contributed to a Queens fire that killed a mother and daughter.

Heat Wave in New York: More Than 32,500 Con Edison Customers Lose Power

With temperatures more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit by 8 a.m., about 100 firefighters fought the heat and the flames Sunday morning as a blaze tore through a house in Richmond Hill in Queens, killing a mother and her 7-year-old daughter, and critically injuring the woman’s two teenage sons. Fire Department officials said they were investigating whether the fire was linked to the family’s air conditioner, which neighbors said was located on the first floor.

Police said Silvia Umana, 51, lived in the home with her daughter, Lupe Perez, and two sons, whom neighbors identified as Gilbert, 19, and Gabriel, 15. The younger boy escaped out a second-story window and was rescued by firefighters.

“They always complained about how hot their house was,” said Tiffany Elahie, 14, a friend of the children who lived a few doors away.

It was a tragic coda to a sweltering heat wave that began Friday, with temperatures that hovered consistently in the mid-90s. In some neighborhoods, the heat index was more than a dozen degrees higher.

New York fire officials said they had expanded emergency service crews in anticipation of a surge in calls, and since Friday had responded to more than 230 heat-related incidents, the majority involving older patients.

Across the five boroughs, many New Yorkers stayed inside — and cranked up air conditioning. But by Sunday night, Consolidated Edison was reporting more than 32,500 customers were without electricity; most of the power failures were in Brooklyn.

“It is the third day of the heat wave, so the system is really baking at this point,” said Alfonso Quiroz, a spokesman for Con Edison.

New York, like much of the country, has been struggling under intense heat, pushing officials in the city to declare a state of emergency. Meteorologists have issued extreme heat advisories stretching from the East Coast through the panhandle of Texas and the Midwest.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Ali Watkins and Ashley Southall