Phoenix firefighters rescued more people from three of the city’s most popular mountain areas this summer than a year earlier, even as rescues during excessive heat warnings declined.
Data presented to a City Council subcommittee last week show 50 rescue patients at Camelback Mountain, Piestewa Peak and South Mountain between May 1 and Aug. 31, compared with 42 during the same period last year — an increase of 19%.
South Mountain accounted for 18 patients both this year and last; Camelback recorded 25 this summer, up from 23; and Piestewa Peak had seven, up from just one…