Leaving pets or children unattended on warm summer days is an invitation to real problems says an emergency management spokesperson.
Dawn Robinson from Oneida County Emergency Management says overheating occurs quickly on sunny days...
"....it doesn't take much for the inside temperature of a vehicle to raise 40 degrees to an 80 egree day with sunshine. Heat stroke can occur on relatively mild days, even 70 degrees. So we want people to be aware that children and pets should be left home if possible. If you go into the store, make sure you take your young children with you..."
She says leave pets at home and take your children with you into the store.
Children are much more sensitive to rising temperatures than adults and, each year children die from excessive heat as a result of being left enclosed in parked vehicles. Since 1998, an average of 38 children per year, or about one every 10 days, have died in automobiles as a result of heatstroke.
