Belgrade emergency crews log 282 callouts in 24 hours
Two shifts at Belgrade's City Institute for Emergency Medical Care handled 144 callouts by day and 138 by night, plus 1,425 calls. After midnight, people over 80 called most.
How much work does one scorching day create in Belgrade? Emergency medical crews were dispatched 282 times in the 24 hours ending on the morning of July 31. That is the combined tally of two shifts at the City Institute for Emergency Medical Care, and the first hard number since this heat wave began.
The day shift went out 144 times, the night shift 138. Over the same period the dispatch centre fielded 1,425 calls. Crews treated people in public places 48 times during the day and 28 times overnight.
Who called most after midnight?
People over 80. They are the group that suffers most during tropical nights, because the body never gets a chance to cool down even after sunset.
The breakdown of the calls looks like this:
- five paediatric calls during the day, one at night
- 10 road accidents by day involving 12 people, 10 of whom were taken to hospital
- four accidents overnight involving four people, three of whom were taken to hospital
Crews recorded four major trauma cases during the day: two falls from height, a motorcyclist knocked off his bike and a gunshot injury. Two more came overnight, another motorcyclist and a 46-year-old man with a fractured forearm from a fight.
What did not happen
Not a single case of acute coronary syndrome appeared in the tally. Doctors say they had expected the opposite.
“What we expected, and it did not happen, is that there would be more acute cardiac problems,” said Dr Ivana Stefanovic of the City Institute.
One day without cardiac callouts guarantees nothing about the next, especially since the worst of the heat is still ahead.
The same doctor singled out one piece of advice about alcohol, which tends to get underestimated in summer.
“After one glass of beer you should drink as many as three glasses of water to make up for the fluid you lost,” Dr Stefanovic said.
Red alert now, peak heat on August 5
The Republic Hydrometeorological Service, RHMZ, put Backa, Banat and Pomoravlje under a red weather alert for July 31, with most of the rest of the country on orange. Daytime highs were forecast between 35 and 38 degrees Celsius, around 37 in Belgrade.
At 1 p.m. the readings stood at 37 in Sombor, 36 in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Cuprija and Palic, and 35 in Zrenjanin, Kikinda and Sremska Mitrovica. Kopaonik was the coolest spot in the country at 21.
Nights bring no relief. Urban lows are running between 20 and 24 degrees, and between 23 and 26 in Belgrade. Those are tropical nights, and they explain why the calls from elderly residents arrive well after midnight.
RHMZ meteorologist Slobodan Sovilj said the sharpest stretch of the heat wave is expected from August 5 to August 8, when local readings could reach about 40 degrees.
Why this tally matters
We covered this heat wave when outdoor work was halted between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. That measure was taken in advance, on the strength of a forecast. These 282 callouts are the first measurable consequence, and they show where the pressure actually lands: not on construction crews, but on people lying alone in overheated flats.
If there is a neighbour over 80 in your building, one phone call a day over the next ten days is worth more than any advice about hydration.
