Yes, it’s a dry heat. But it’s a deadly one too.
Phoenix keeps breaking heat records right and left. This year we hit 100 degrees in March multiple times and had the earliest triple-digit day in the city’s history. Higher temperatures mean more heat exhaustion and heat stroke—and a greater need to combat them. That’s what co-directors Nita Blum-Reddick and Jonathan Pickett sought to document with their short documentary film “A New Inferno,” recently released by the New York Times Op-Docs. Pickett and Blum-Reddick, who is a professor at Arizona State University’s Sidney Poitier Film School, followed a team of Phoenix firefighters working to save people suffering from heat stroke with a new method — an ice immersion bag. The protocol seems simple: put people who are overheating into a bag with ice to cool them down. Yet, this new technique is only now gaining traction.
I spoke with Blum-Reddick to find out more. Our interview has been edited for brevity and clarity…