A stifling heat dome that sat over much of British Columbia five years ago is being remembered by the provincial health officer as traumatic for people who lost loved ones and overwhelming for those trying to care for those affected.
More than 600 people died during the first provincewide heat dome in 2021, but Dr. Bonnie Henry says it will not be the last such event.
Henry says in a statement that most of the people who died during the period between June 25 and July 1 lived alone and weren’t able to keep cool inside their homes.
She says her thoughts are with those who live with trauma from the event and she knows of the “tremendous effect” on people who lost loved ones and on the first responders and health-care workers who were overwhelmed with people needing help.
A B.C. coroner’s death review released the next year says 619 people died during the heat event and many of them lived in poverty or had mobility and cognitive issues that made it hard for them to access cooling areas.
Henry says the province launched a heat alert response system and an extreme heat preparedness guide in response to the deaths.
The changes were some of the actions recommended in the death review to prevent future deaths.
The union representing more than 6,000 ambulance paramedics and emergency dispatchers in B.C. says its members had never experienced such an event.
“Emergency calls surged beyond anything our health care and public safety systems had faced before. Crews worked around the clock under extraordinary pressure, witnessing an overwhelming loss of life that many still carry with them today,” Ambulance Paramedics of British Columbia said in a statement issued Thursday.
An online petition that circulated after the heat dome’s record-breaking first weekend in 2021 lambasted BC Emergency Health Services, accusing the service of inadequate staffing levels that led to increased patient wait times.
In a 2021 report, the service said the heat dome, combined with a particularly bad wildfire season, put “unprecedented” strain on its resources, causing a record-breaking spike in 911 calls and impacting its ability to respond effectively.
The union’s statement said the tragedy resulted in improvements to B.C.’s emergency response system, including better paramedic services and resources.
Leanne Heppell, chief ambulance officer for B.C. Emergency Health Services, said the heat dome tested the province’s entire emergency response system, including its ambulance services.
“Since this tragedy, BCEHS has made significant organizational changes to ensure we are better prepared to respond to future heat events and other natural disasters and large scene emergencies,” she said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
Those changes include a clinical safety plan that allows for the redeployment of staff and ambulances when activated, as well as hiring more staff for its disaster risk reduction team.
Heppell said the service added more than 2,000 paramedic, dispatch and emergency medical responder positions between 2017 and October 2025 and added permanent staff to more rural ambulance stations versus on-call staff.
She echoed Henry’s comments that the heat dome was not a one-time event, adding that B.C. will continue to see extreme heat and other natural disasters as a result of climate change.
The Village of Lytton, B.C., experienced the highest temperature ever measured in Canada during the heat dome at 46.6 C, and was razed by a wildfire the next day, killing two people and destroying most of the community.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 25, 2026.
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