Sleeping child left in car outside Bellingham business as temperatures reached 95 degrees
A child reportedly was left inside a car outside a Bellingham business in 95-degree temperatures Sunday, resulting in the parent being cited for reckless endangerment and the child being transferred from their care.
The child was checked by aid workers and found to be OK, Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
An employee of the store in the 4400 block of Meridian Street noticed the child left alone in the car June 27 and sought help, then removed the child from the car, Murphy reported.
When officers arrived, they determined the parent left the sleeping 5-year-old in the car and entered the business to use the restroom, according to Murphy.
Temperatures at the time were 95 degrees, Murphy reported, making the temperatures in the car “significantly higher, dangerously high.”
It was estimated the child was left alone in the hot car for more than eight minutes before being rescued by the employee, Murphy reported, and it took the parent several minutes to return after the child had been rescued.
Police cited the parent with reckless endangerment (domestic violence) and the child was transferred to the custody of the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families, according to Murphy. She added that names will not be released until reports have been completed.
Heat danger remains
Though Whatcom County’s weekend heat wave has subsided after an all-time record high temperature of 99 was recorded at Bellingham International Airport Monday, June 28, everyone should remain vigilant against leaving children or pets in hot cars.
The National Weather Service Seattle bureau predicted high temperatures Tuesday of 86 degrees in Bellingham, 91 in Lynden, 93 in Everson, 94 in Nooksack and 96 in Sumas and Deming. After Tuesday, temperatures in Bellingham are expected to cool even more, but still remain hotter than normal, with highs through Monday in the upper 70s and lower 80s.
Since 1998, there have been 888 children nationwide who died due to pediatric vehicular heatstroke, according to noheatstroke.org. There have been five deaths so far this year, after 25 were reported in 2020.
The website reports there have been three pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths in Washington state since 1998 — none in Whatcom County — with the most recent two in the state occurring in 2013.
Temperatures inside a closed car on a 70-degree day can reach 89 degrees in just 10 minutes and top 99 degrees in 20 minutes, according to the website. A car is estimated to reach 109 degrees in just 20 minutes on an 80-degree day.
On a 95-degree day, such as Sunday, it would take just 10 minutes to reach 114 degrees inside a car, the website estimates, adding that cracking the windows had “little (i.e, less than 3 degrees) effect.”
