Advertisement

3 deaths in L.A. County linked to Labor Day weekend heat wave

Los Angeles County recorded its all-time record high temperature over the Labor Day weekend.
A man sits on the San Gabriel River jetty in Long Beach during Labor Day weekend, when at least three people suffered heat-related deaths.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Share

Heat exposure contributed to the deaths of at least three people who perished in Los Angeles County as a heat wave broiled the region over the Labor Day weekend, according to the county coroner.

All three people were believed to be unsheltered, underscoring the dangers homeless people face when temperatures soar. They died the same day, Sept. 6, when Los Angeles County recorded its highest-ever temperature: 121 degrees Fahrenheit, registered at a weather station in Woodland Hills.

Holland Harmond, a 60-year-old man, died at 3:30 p.m. on the sidewalk in the 600 block of San Pedro Street in downtown Los Angeles, according to the medical examiner-coroner’s office. Holland died from heart disease, with heat exposure and chronic alcohol abuse as contributing factors, coroner’s records say.

Advertisement

A septuagenarian whose name wasn’t disclosed because his family has yet to be informed of his death died at 7:20 p.m. in the 6900 block of Denver Avenue in South L.A., according to coroner’s records. He too died from heart disease, with heat exposure a contributing factor.

A woman who has yet to be identified died at 6:10 p.m. in the 900 block of Meridian Avenue in South Pasadena, near the city’s Metro Gold Line stop, according to coroner’s records. She died of hyperthermia.

Times staff writer Tony Barboza contributed reporting to this story.

Advertisement