The Paris heatwave

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In August 2003 Europe was hit by the hottest heatwave for hundreds of years. Tens of thousands of people died.

Not built to withstand two weeks of extreme heat, Paris turned into a death trap for its most vulnerable citizens.

The temperature reached 40C. Many elderly people died in their apartments alone.

The government was criticised for its handling of the crisis. The head of the national health authority resigned shortly after the end of the heatwave.

Emergency doctor, Patrick Pelloux, who was working at St Antoine Hospital in Paris, tells George Crafer what he encountered.

(Photo: Paris looking hot. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service.
0:04.7	Join me as I serve up personal conversations
0:07.1	with my sensational guests.
0:08.9	Do a leap, interviews, Tim Cook.
0:11.2	Technology doesn't want to be good or bad.
0:15.0	It's in the hands of the Creator.
0:16.7	It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room.
0:20.6	If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes, you're
0:24.7	doing the wrong thing.
0:25.9	Julie, at your service.
0:27.8	Listen to all episodes on BBC Sales. Hello you're listening to the Witness History podcast with me George
0:39.8	Crafer. I'm taking you back to 2003 when one of Europe's deadliest heat waves killed tens of thousands
0:46.6	of people.
0:50.9	Things got so bad in Paris, they ran out of space to put all the bodies.
0:55.0	This program explains just how bad things got.
0:58.0	Am I going to start with those details?
1:02.0	That's the most horrible smell ever.
1:05.0	It's the most horrible smell ever.
1:08.0	It's a sour smell. It goes everywhere.
1:10.0	The smell of a corpse of rotting flesh is really the worst smell I think
1:15.0	A week before that temperatures in Paris began to rapidly rise.
1:20.0	It was the hottest European summer for hundreds of years.
	...

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