Extreme heat plays a role in hundreds of deaths in Maricopa County each year. Most of these deaths occur outdoors, but when it comes to indoor heat deaths, one group faces disproportionate risk: residents of manufactured homes.
RVs and mobile homes make up only about 5% of housing in Maricopa County. But 25% of indoor, heat-related deaths in the county last year occurred in these homes, according to the Maricopa County Department of Public Health.
“These manufactured-housing residents have really fallen through the cracks,” said Mark Kear, an associate professor with the University of Arizona School of Geography, Development and Environment…