The advocate spoke gently to the slumped over woman propped up against her on the curb.
“Anna, they are going to put you in the ice bag,” Sophia Elicia said. “You have to wake up. Hey, baby, they are going to put you in the ice bag, OK?”
It was just after 10:30 in the morning on Aug. 1, and Phoenix was in the middle of a heat wave. Temperatures were already well over 100 degrees, on the way to 116. Anna, who was homeless and lived in the encampment near downtown Phoenix known as the Zone, was suffering from possible heat stroke and, possibly, an overdose. Elicia held her up while firefighters placed bags of ice on her body to cool her down so they could take her to the hospital…