Santa Rosa residents cook under more 100 degree heat

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KTVU) -- Temperatures have been so hot in Sonoma County officials are doing all they can to help people cope with the heat.

Santa Rosa city leaders put out email bulletins advising residents how to cope with the heat.

That's little consolation when your job is running a barbeque, where tempatures sizzle well above the triple digit temperatures.

"It runs about 900 to 1,100 degrees," said Lee Lombardi of Lombardi's BBQ in Petaluma.

"They're charcoled up twice, three times a day. When it gets really hot, we get real busy because people don't want to cook at home," he told KTVU.

This heat is considered dangerous.

Santa Rosa officials opened three community cooling centers -- mainly for seniors -- and two community swimming pools, mainly for children.

Santa Rosa Fire Department Emergency Services Director Matt Dahl told KTVU there's a reason for that.

"Elderly people and children are particularly prone to dehydration. It happens to them a lot quicker in the heat and people with health problems, those problems are exacerbated by the heat."

Perhaps the biggest concern is fire. A Santa Rosa woman was arrested Tuesday for throwing a lit cigarette in a vacant lot on Santa Rosa Avenue that started a small grass fire. It was quickly extinguished by firefighters after burning about a quarter acre.

There hasn't been a major fire here but there's been plenty of smoke from others nearby.

"We had the Rocky fire, the Jerusalem fire," said Assistant Santa Rosa Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal, referring to the two major blazes in adjoining Lake County.

"We don't want those types of incidents to happen here so we've been really stressing to our citizens and the residents of Santa Rosa the importance of being aware."

The Highway Patrol has also been reaching out to remind drivers not to leave children or pets in vehicles... even for a moment.

"Studies have shown within about ten minutes it can get up to over 100 degrees, 105 degrees and after 30 minutes on an average day 85 degrees outside it can be up to 120," said officer Jon Sloat of the Santa Rosa CHP.

Adelina Mandujano was waiting in a parked car outside the CHP's Rohnert Park office with her 2 year old grandson. She says the thought of leaving him in the car alone has never crossed her mind, particularly in this heat.

"Never. I've never done it with my kid or with my grandchild, I would not do it with him. It's just too precious. To take that little moment to go do that errand. It doesn't mean that much. This is what's more important," she said while rubbing the child's head.

It appears people are heeding the advice. A stop at Shuffles Magical Ice Cream Shoppe in downtown Santa Rosa showed the place nearly deserted, with sweltering heat outside the air conditioned doors.

Manager JP Scirica said there was a logical explanation.

"I think people are adhering to the heat advisory staying indoors right now, trying to make sure they're staying cool."