A hot car can kill a child. Henderson officials are trying to prevent that

With the weather heating up and heat advisories becoming more frequent, the city of Henderson is making child safety in hot cars a top priority for community outreach.

Mayor Michelle Romero and Henderson firefighters gathered at the city’s fire training center on Thursday to kickstart their annual campaign, “Check Your Seats in the Heat.”

The campaign, which launched in 2010, aims to raise awareness of how quickly cars heat up and what to do if a child is locked inside.

Children left in hot cars are at a high risk of heat stroke because their body temperature can rise three times faster than adults without sweating to cool down. High body temperatures can lead to brain damage and in severe cases, death.

The inside temperature of a car can rise by 30 degrees in 10 minutes.

“This is preventable,” Romero said. “I don’t think people realize how fast things can happen, and how quickly they can escalate.”

The campaign launches as Southern Nevada swelters through unseasonably hot weather. The city has already recorded six hundred-degree days this month, with more triple-digit temperatures forecast well into next week.

Heat stroke was the leading cause of non-crash vehicle-related deaths for U.S. children in 2024. Nevada hasn’t had a child hot car death since 2020. From May to October 2024, the Henderson Fire Department responded to 39 locked vehicle emergency calls. There were no fatalities.

Precautions recommended

“In the 25 years I’ve been doing this, as a first responder and a father, we have seen far too many children die in hot vehicles, and oftentimes it’s a complete accident,” Fire Chief Scott Vivier said.

Attentive and conscientious guardians can accidentally leave a child in a hot car, he said.

Vivier recommends leaving important items in the back seat, such as a cellphone or bag, so guardians always check the back seat before leaving the car. He also urged caregivers to make a habit of opening their vehicle’s back doors right after exiting the vehicle and locking cars at home.

“Sometimes kids climb into cars without parents knowing and become trapped or fall asleep,” he said.

If a child goes missing, first check any bodies of water, like a pool, and then check all car compartments.

In Nevada, it’s legal to break a window if a child or pet is left in a hot car. Henderson Fire Department recommends immediately calling 911 if a child is locked in a hot car.

Outside the training center, the fire department reenacted a locked car emergency. The car, which had been sitting outside in 97-degree weather with a baby doll locked inside, had an internal temperature of nearly 150 degrees.

“We have tools so that we can access cars quickly. We have paramedics on every unit that can save a life,” said Dan Pentkowski, president of Henderson Professional Fire Fighters.

The department demonstrated how they break the car window and quickly extract a child into the ambulance. The firefighters took less than 30 seconds to rescue the baby doll from the hot car and get inside the air-conditioned ambulance.

There is a heightened sense of urgency whenever the department receives calls about kids.

“Everything that we do is intentional and we’re prepared for it, but there’s a little bit of a gasp and a heightened sense of awareness of how important it is,” Pentkowski said.

Contact Megan Howard at mhoward@reviewjournal.com. Follow her on X at @meganmhxward.