Europe's record heat has overwhelmed Paris mortuaries and left families in distress [View all]

https://apnews.com/article/france-europe-heat-wave-weather-climate-change-a9095af72d14cfdd9ca43637490083e9

Europe’s record heat has overwhelmed Paris mortuaries and left families in distress
By JOHN LEICESTER and JEFFREY SCHAEFFER
Updated 2:32 AM CDT, June 29, 2026

PARIS (AP) — Every few minutes, the mortuary owner’s phone rings. Since a record-smashing heat wave started taking lives and storage space for bodies in Paris and beyond, the funeral directors and mourning families calling him mostly have the same question: Do you have room for one more?

With all 32 places in his cold room taken, Zouhaeir Hertelli reluctantly has to gently say “Non,” over and over and over again.

Public Health France said there were more than 1,200 deaths last Wednesday, when France registered its hottest-ever day, breaking a record that had been set just the previous day.

Deaths then increased to more than 1,400 on Thursday and another 1,400 on Friday, it said. By way of comparison, the pre-heat wave death rate in April and May was around 900 to 1,000 per day, it said.

It said that 85% of the deaths registered so far during the three days it studied involved people aged 65 and above and that there was a sharp increase in deaths at home — up by about 40% — particularly in the Paris region.

Hertelli said funeral directors he spoke to told him they were having to store bodies as far away as Chartres — 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Paris — and in other regions around the capital. To open more space, he said he has asked authorities for permission to temporarily install refrigerated containers outside his mortuary, which is next to Paris’ Orly airport, but is still waiting for a green light.

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